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THE  HISTORY  OF  NATIONS 

HQfllY CABOT  LODGE, PhD..LlD..roiTOR:IN<;HIEr 

GERMANY 

Revised  and  edited  from  the  work  of 

BAYARD  TAYLOR 

by 

SIDNEYS.  FAY.  PhD. 

Professor  of  History 
Dartmouth  CoUede 

Volume  xvm 


Illustrated 


The  H  .W.  Snow  and  Son  Company 

C  h  i   c   a   g    o 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
JOHN  D.  MORRIS  &  COMPANY 

Copyright,  1910 
THE  H.  W.  SNOW  &  SON  COMPANY 


THE   HISTORY   OF  NATIONS 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE,  PLD.,  LX.D. 

Associate  Editors  and  Authors 


ARCHIBALD  HSHRT  SAYCE.  LL.D.. 
PirofMaor    of    Aasyriology,     Oxford 
▼emty 


SIR  ROBERT  K.  DOUGLAS, 
Uni-  Professor  of  Chinese.  King's  College,  L«on- 

don 


CHRISTOPHER  JOHRSTOIf,  M.D..  Ph.D., 

A«aocUte  Professor  of  Oriental  History  and 
Arch«eology,  Johns  Hopkins  University 


C  W.  C.  OMAR.  LL.D., 

ProfeMor  of  History.  Oxford  University 


THBODOR  MOMMSBH. 

L*t«   Professor  of  Ancient  History.  Uni* 
▼ersity  of  Berlin 


ASTHUR  C.  HOWLAHD.  Ph.D.. 

Department  of  History,  University  of  Penii- 
sylvsnia 


JEREMIAH  WHIPPLE  JENKS,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of   Political   Economy  and   Pol- 
itics, Cornell  University 


KAinCHI  ASAKAWA,  Ph.D., 

Instructor    in    the    History    of    Japanese 
Civilization,  Yale  University 


WILFRED  HAROLD  MUNRO,  Ph.D., 

Professor    of    European    History,     Brown 
University 


G.  MERCER  ADAM, 

Historian  and  Editof 


FRED  MORROW  FLING,  Ph.D.. 

Professor  of  European  History,  Univerilty 
of  Nebraska 


CBAELBS  MXRIVALB.  LL.D.. 

Lata   Dwui  of  Ely.   formerly  Lecturer  in 
History,  Cambrioge  University 


FRAIT9OIS  AUGUSTE  MARIE  MIGNET, 
Late  Member  of  the  French  Academy 


J  mOOIHSOK  CABOT,  Ph.D., 

Dspaitment  of  History.  WeUesley  Collece 


JAMES  WESTFALL  THOMPSON,  Ph.D., 

Department    of     History.     University    of 
Chicago 


mt  WILLIAM  W.  HURTER,  F.R.S., 

L*U  Dir«ctor-Gen«ral  of  Sutistics  in  India 


SAMUEL  RAWSON  GARDINER,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Modem  History.  King's  Col- 
lege, London 


AMiMi*  M    nrrrvvvB    «v  n  R.  W.  JOYCE,  LL.D., 

-TTn  .    ^  ^'ll*         Tt  .        .  Commissioner  for  the   Publication  of  tb» 

of  History.  Weslsyan  Univwsity  Ancient  Laws  of  Ireland 

vi 


ASSOCIATE  EDITORS  AND   AUTHORS-Continued 


JUSTIN  McCarthy,  ll.d.. 

Author  and  Historian 


AUGUSTUS  HUNT  SHEARER,  Ph.D., 

Instructor    in     History,     Trinity    College' 
Hartford 


W.  HAROLD  CLAFLIN,  B.A., 

Department    of    History,     Harvard    Uni- 
versity 


PAUL  LOUIS  LEGER, 

Professor  of  the  Slav  Languages,  C6llege 
de  France 


WILLIAM  E.  LINGLEBACH,  Ph.D., 

Assistant  Professor  of  European  History, 
University  of  Pennsylvania 


BAYARD  TAYLOR, 

Former  United  States  Minister  to  Germany 


CHARLES  DANDLIKER,  LL.D., 

President  of  Zurich  University 


SIDNEY  B.  FAY,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  History,    Dartmouth   College 


ELBERT  JAY  BENTON,  Ph.D., 

Department  of  History,  Western  Reserve 

University 


SIR  EDWARD  S.  CREASY,    . 

Late  Professor  of  History,  University  Col- 
lege, London 


ARCHIBALD  CARY  COOLIDGE,  Ph.D., 

Assistant    Professor   of    History,    Harvard 
University 


WILLIAM  RICHARD  MORFILL,  M.A., 

Professor  of   Russian  and  other  Slavonic 
Languages,  Oxford  University 

CHARLES  EDMUND  FRYER,  Ph.D., 

Department  of  History,  McGill  University 

E.  C.  OTTE, 

Specialist  on  Scandinavian  History 

EDWARD  S.  COR  WIN,  Ph.D., 

Instructor    in     History,     Princeton    Uni- 
versity 


J.  SCOTT  KELTIE,  LL.D., 

President  Royal  Geographical  Society 


ALBERT  GALLOWAY  KELLER,  Ph.D., 

Assistant  Professor  of  the  Science  of  So- 
ciety, Yale  University 


EDWARD  JAMES  PAYNE,  M.A., 

Fellow  of  University  College,  Oxford 


PHILIP  PATTERSON  WELLS,  Ph.D., 

Lecturer  in  History  and  Librarian  of  the 
Law  School,  Yale  University 


FREDERICK  ALBION  OBER, 

Historian,  Author  and  Traveler 


JAMES  WILFORD  GARNER,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Political  Science,   University 
of  Illinois 


JOHN  BACH  McMASTER,  Litt.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  History.  University  of  Penn 
sylvania 


JAMES  LAMONT  PERKINS.   Managing  Editor 


The  editors  and  publishers  desire  to  express  their  appreciation  for  valuablft 
advice  and  suggestions  received  from  the  following:  Hon.  Andrew  D.  White, 
LL.D.,  Alfred  Thayer  Mahan,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  Hon.  Charles  Emory  Smith, 
LL.D.,  Professor  Edward  Gaylord  Bourne,  Ph.D.,  Charles  F,  Thwing, 
LL.D.,  Dr.  Emil  Reich,  William  Elliot  Griffis,  LL.D.,  Professor  John 
Martin  Vincent,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Melvil  Dewey,  LL.D.,  Alston  Ellis,  LL.D., 
Professor  Charles  H.  McCarthy,  Ph.D.,  Professor  Herman  V.  Ames,  Ph.D., 
Professor  Walter  L.  Fleming,  Ph.D.,  Professor  David  Y.  Thomas,  Ph.D., 
Mr.  Otto  Reich  and  Mr.  O.  M.  Dickerson. 

vii 


PREFACE 

Mr.  Taylor  was  exceptionally  well  equipped  for  writing  a  popu- 
lar history  of  Germany.  At  the  time  when  he  wrote  (1873) 
he  had  already  been  many  years  in  Germany  occupied  in  his  well- 
known  studies  of  Goethe;  he  had  married  a  Cxerman  lady,  had 
traveled  widely,  and  shared  in  that  German  enthusiasm  which  ac- 
companied the  foundation  of  the  German  Empire.  He  made  use  in 
his  history  of  the  best  results  of  the  German  historical  scholarship 
of  his  day.  But  in  the  generation  which  has  passed  scientific  his- 
torical research  has  brought  to  light  a  mine  of  new  material ;  the 
economic  historians  have  taught  us  to  lay  a  new  emphasis  on  that 
side  of  historical  development;  and  time  has  brought  more  just 
judgments  in  regard  to  disputed  religious  questions.  It  has  been 
the  aim  of  the  editor  to  preserve  as  nearly  as  possible  the  original 
text,  and  yet  bring  it  completely  into  line  with  the  best  modern 
scholarship.  The  necessary  changes  were  so  numerous  and  so 
varied  in  character  that  for  the  sake  of  smoothness  in  the  narrative 
it  has  seemed  better  to  incorporate  all  changes  directly  in  the 
text  rather  than  distract  the  reader's  attention  with  innumerable 
footnotes.  The  responsibility  for  the  last  chapter  rests  wholly  with 
the  editor;  in  brief  space  he  has  attempted  to  sum  up  the  leading 
features  in  the  development  of  Germany  in  the  last  thirty  years. 


S.  <)\^  ffO.      ^CL^   . 


Dartmouth  College 


PAGE 

330- 

3 

lO 

17 

A.  D. 

23 

31 

38 

CONTENTS 

PART   I 
EARLY  HISTORY.    330  b.  C.-911  a.  d. 

CHAPTER 

I.  The  Ancient  Germans  and  their  Country. 

70  B.  c 

11.  The  Wars  with  Rome.    70  b.  c.-q  a,  d. 

III.  Hermann,  the  First  German  Leader.  9-21  a.  d. 

IV.  The  First  Three  Centuries  of  our  Era.  21-300  a.  d. 
V.  The  Migration  of  the  Goths.    300-412  a.  d. 

VI.  The  Invasion  of  the  Huns.   412-472  a.  d.     . 
VII.  The   Rise   and   Fall   of   the    Ostrogoths.    472- 

570  A.  D. 45 

VIII.  Europe  at  the  End  of  the  Migrations  of  the 

Races.     570  a.  d.     .         .         .         .         .         -53 

IX.  The  Kingdom  of  the  Franks.    486-638  a.  d.         .     59 
X.  The  Dynasty  of  the  Mayors  of  the  Palace.    638- 

768  A.  D. 67 

XI.  The  Reign  of  Charlemagne.    768-814  a.  d.     .         .     78 
XII.  The  Emperors  of  the   Carolingian   Line.    814- 

911  A.  D. 89 

PART    II 
MEDIEVAL  HISTORY.    911-1493 

XIII.  Conrad  I   and  the  Saxon  Dynasty.    911-973  a.  d.  104 

XIV.  The  Decline  OF  THE  Saxon  Dynasty.    973-1024     .   116 
XV.  The  Franconian  Emperors.    1024-1106        .         .   124 

XVI.  End  of  the  Franconian  Dynasty,  and  Rise  of  the 

Hohenstaufens.     II 06- 1 1 52      .         .         .         .139 
XVII.  The  Reign  of  Frederick  Barbarossa.    1152-1197     .   147 
XVIII.  The  Reign  of  Frederick  II.  and  the  End  of  the 

Hohenstaufen  Line,     i  197-1268       .         .         .   158 
XIX.  The  Interregnum.     1256-1273       ....   171 


xii  CONTENTS 

CBAFm  PAGE 

XX.  From  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  to  Lewis  of  Bavaria 

1273-1347 179 

XXL  The  Luxemburg  Emperors,  Charles  IV  and  Wen- 

ZEL.     1347-1410 192 

XXIL  The  Reign  of  Sigismund  and  the  Hussite  War 

1410-1438 201 

XXIIL  The  Foundation  of  the  Hapsburg  Dynasty.    1438- 

1439 212 

XXIV.  The  Reign  of  Maximilian  I.    1498-15 19      .         .  225 

PART   HI 

PERIOD  OF  REFORMATION.    1493-1701 

XXV.  The  Reformation.    15 17-1546        ....  233 

XXVI.  Growth  of  Protestantism.    1546-1600  .         .  254 

XXVII.  Beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.    1600-1634  265 

XXVIIL  End  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.    1634-1648        .  288 

XXIX.  Decline  of  the  Imperial  Power.     1648-1701        .  298 

PART   IV 

RISE  AND  GROWTH   OF   PRUSSIA.    1701-1806 

XXX.  The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.     1701-1714  311 

XXXI.  The  Rise  of  Prussia.    1714-1740        .         .         .  317 

XXXII.  The  Reign  of  Frederick  the  Great.    1740-1786      .  326 

XXXIII.  Maria  Theresa  and  Joseph  II.    1740-1790     .         .  347 

XXXIV.  The  End  of  the  German  Empire.    1790- 1806        .  354 

PART  V 

THE  NEW   EMPIRE.   1806-1910 

XXXV.  Germany  under  Napoleon.    1806-1814         .         .  371 
XXXVI,  The  War  of  Liberation  ;  Reaction.    1814-1848      .  387 
XXXVII.  The  Revolution  of  1848  and  Its  Results.     1848- 

1861 398 

XXXVIII.  The  Struggle  with  Austria  ;  The  North  German 

Confederation.    1861-1870        ....  407 

XXXIX.  The  Franco-Prussian  War.     1870-1871        .        .  415 

XL.  The  German  Em?ire.    1871-1910         ,        .        .  428 

Bibuography 453 

Index  ,        .        .  461 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Imperial  Deputies  Are  Thrown  out  of  the  Win- 
dow OF  THE  Council  Chamber.     (Photogravure)     Frontispiece 

FACING   PAGE 

Otto  I  Views  the  Body  of  Thankmar        ....   io8 

Henry  IV  at  Canossa  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -134 

Preaching  the  First  Crusade     .         .         .         .         .         .138 

Meeting  of  Frederick  Barbarossa  and  Alexander  III         .   152 
Henry  the  Lion  before  Henry  VI         .         .         .         .         .156 

CoNRADiN  Hears  His  Death  Warrant  Read  .  .  .170 
Charles  the  Bold        ........  216 

Entry  of  Maximilian  into  Ghent 218 

Maximilian   I       ........         .  226 

Letter    of    Indulgence        .......  234 

Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms     ......  240 

Martin  Luther 244 

The  Court  of  the  King  of  Zion  .....  250 
Christian  of  Brunswick  Sacking  a  Cloister  .  .  .  270 
General  Tilly  Enters  the  Burning  Magdeburg        .         .  280 

Assassination  of  Wallenstein 286 

Frederick,  the  Great  Elector,  Receives  French  Emigres  .  300 
The  Destruction  of  Heidelberg  .....  304 
Frederick  the  Great  at  the  Bier  of  General  Schwerin 

(Colored) 334 

John  Wolfgang  von  Goethe        .         .         .  "j 

JOHANN    ChRISTOPH    FrEIDRICH    VON    ScHILLER  j        *  '  *    ^^ 

Admiral  Tegethof  on  the  "  Kaiser  Max  "  at  Lissa      .         .  408 
Otto  Eduard  Leopold,  Prince  von  Bismarck   "j 
Count  Helmuth  Karl  Bernhard  von  Moltke  J    *         *         * 
The  Surrender  of  Sudan     .......  422 

Facsimile   of   the   Important   Parts   of   the   Preliminary 

Treaty   of    Peace,    1871 424 

Proclamation  of  King  William  as  Emperor  of  Germany      .  426 

xiii 


ZIT 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


TEXT  MAPS 


Germania  Magna 

Partition    of    Verdun 

Central  Europe.     Circa  980 

Central  Europe.     1180 

Switzerland 

The  Thirty  Years'  War 

Germany.     1648    . 

Northeastern  Europe.     1700 

Central    Europe.     1810 

Europe.     1815 

The  Campaign  in  Bohemia.     1866 

Territories  of  Germany.     1903     . 


PAGB 

94 
117 

154 
214 
269 
294 

318 

378 

397 
411 

450 


PART  I 

EARLY  HISTORY.    330  B.  C.-911   AD. 


HISTORY  OF  GERMANY 


Chapter  I 

THE  ANCIENT  GERMANS  AND  THEIR  COUNTRY 

330-70  B.  C. 

THE  original  home  of  our  earliest  ancestors  is  still  a  matter 
of  doubt  and  uncertainty,  hotly  debated  by  men  of  learn- 
ing-, historians,  philologists,  and  anthropologists;  some 
would  locate  the  cradle  of  the  human  race  among  the  islands 
of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  others  along  the  northern  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  others  in  the  plains  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates, 
and  others  still  on  the  steppes  of  southern  Russia  along  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Caucasus  Mountains.  But  though  scholars  cannot  agree 
as  to  the  earliest  home  of  our  ancestors,  they  are  pretty  well  agreed 
in  dividing  the  civilized  peoples  of  Europe  on  a  language  basis  into 
five  great  groups, — Greek,  Roman,  Celtic,  Germanic,  and  Slavic. 
The  Greeks  and  Romans  settled  down  in  Greece  and  Italy ;  the  Celts 
pushed  along  farther  north  and  west  until  they  were  brought  to  a 
halt  by  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic,  and  came  to  live  in  Spain,  in 
France,  and  in  the  British  Isles.  Next  behind  them  were  the  Teu- 
tons, or  "Germans"  (i.  e.,  "neighbors"),  as  they  were  called  by 
the  Celts  to  the  west.  The  Germans  filled  in  all  the  central  part  of 
Europe  from  the  Alps  northward  to  the  sea,  and  spread  out  over  the 
coasts  of  Scandinavia.  There  they  were  found  on  the  amber-pro- 
ducing shores  of  the  Baltic  Sea  by  the  Greek  explorer  Pytheas  in  the 
year  330  b.  c. — the  first  mention  in  history  of  the  Germans.  Beyond 
the  Germans,  to  the  east,  came  finally  the  Slavs,  who  for  a  long  time 
never  formed  a  united  government  for  themselves,  but  mingled 
with  other  races,  and  only  at  the  present  day  are  beginning  to 
realize  that  the  Russians  are  one  nation  and  form  a  mighty  empire ; 
and  even  now  there  are  many  Slavs  in  Prussia,  Hungary,  and  the 
Balkan  Peninsula  who  are  not  politically  united  with  the  main 
body  of  the  Slavic  nation  in  Russia. 

For  more  than  two  hundred  years  after  that  exploring  voyage 
of  Pytheas  there  is  no  further  mention  of  the  Germans  in  history. 


4  GERMANY 

113-102  B.C. 

Only  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  numerous  stone  implements,  many 
of  them  very  perfect  specimens,  prove  that  extensive  settlements 
were  being  made.  Then  finally  in  the  year  113  b.  c.  a  tremendous 
horde  of  these  Germans  of  the  North  forced  their  way  through  the 
Tyrolese  Alps  and  invaded  the  Roman  territory.  They  numbered 
several  hundred  thousand,  and  brought  with  them  their  wives, 
their  children,  and  all  their  movable  property.  They  were  com- 
posed of  two  great  tribes,  the  Cimbrians  and  Teutons,  accompanied 
by  some  minor  allies,  Celtic  as  well  as  Germanic.  Their  statement 
was  that  they  were  driven  from  their  homes  on  the  northern  ocean 
by  the  inroads  of  the  waves,  and  they  demanded  territory  for 
settlement,  or,  at  least,  the  right  to  pass  the  Roman  frontier.  The 
consul,  Papirius  Carbo,  collected  an  army  and  endeavored  to  resist 
their  advance ;  but  he  was  defeated  by  them  in  a  battle  fought  near 
Noreia,  between  the  Adriatic  and  the  Alps. 

The  terror  occasioned  by  this  defeat  reached  even  to  Rome. 
The  "  barbarians,"  as  they  were  called,  were  men  of  large  stature,  of 
astonishing  bodily  strength,  with  yellow  hair  and  fierce  blue  eyes. 
They  wore  breastplates  of  iron  and  helmets  crowned  with  the  heads 
of  wild  beasts,  and  carried  white  shields  which  shone  in  the  sun- 
shine. They  first  hurled  double-headed  spears,  in  battle,  but  at 
close  quarters  fought  with  short  and  heavy  swords.  The  women 
encouraged  them  with  cries  and  war  songs,  and  seemed  no  less 
fierce  and  courageous  than  the  men.  They  had  also  priestesses, 
clad  in  white  linen,  who  delivered  prophecies  and  slaughtered  human 
victims  upon  the  altars  of  their  gods. 

Instead  of  moving  toward  Rome,  the  Cimbrians  and  Teu- 
tons marched  westward  along  the  foot  of  the  Alps,  crossed  into 
Gaul,  devastated  the  country  between  the  Rhone  and  the  Pyrenees, 
and  even  obtained  temporary  possession  of  part  of  Spain.  Having 
thus  plundered  at  will  for  ten  years,  they  retraced  their  steps  and 
prepared  to  invade  Italy  a  second  time.  The  celebrated  consul, 
Marius,  who  was  sent  against  them,  found  they  had  divided  their 
forces  in  order  to  cross  the  Alps  by  two  roads.  He  first  attacked 
the  Teutons,  two  hundred  thousand  in  number,  in  southern  France, 
at  Aix  (Aquae  Sextiae),  and  almost  exterminated  them  in  the 
year  102  b.  c.  A  historian  of  that  time  relates  that  the  land  around 
Aix  was  so  fertilized  as  to  bear  fruit  in  astounding  quantities, 
and  that  the  people  hedged  in  their  vineyards  with  the  bones  of 
the  slain.    Then  Marius  led  his  army  across  the  Alps  into  Italy, 


ANCIENT     GERMANS  5 

102-70  B.C. 

and  in  the  following  year  met  the  Cimbrians  at  VercelH.  They 
were  drawn  up  in  a  square,  the  sides  of  which  were  nearly  three 
miles  long:  in  the  center  their  wagons,  collected  together,  formed 
a  fortress  for  the  women  and  children.  But  the  Roman  legions 
broke  the  Cimbrian  square,  and  obtained  a  complete  victory.  The 
women,  seeing  that  all  was  lost,  slew  their  children,  and  then  them- 
selves; only  a  few  thousand  prisoners  were  made — among  them 
Teutoboch,  the  prince  of  the  Teutons,  who  had  escaped  from  the 
slaughter  at  Aix — to  figure  in  the  triumph  accorded  to  Marius  by 
the  Roman  senate. 

The  Roman  conquests,  which  now  began  to  extend  northward 
into  the  heart  of  Europe,  soon  brought  the  two  races  into  collision 
again,  especially  along  the  Rhine  and  Danube.  From  the  earliest 
reports,  as  well  as  the  later  movements  of  the  tribes,  we  are  able 
to  ascertain  the  probable  order  of  their  settlement,  though  not  the 
exact  boundaries  of  each.  The  territory  which  they  occupied  was 
almost  the  same  as  that  which  now  belongs  to  the  German  Empire. 
The  Rhine  divided  them  from  the  Gauls,  except  toward  its  mouth 
where  the  Germanic  tribes  occupied  part  of  Belgium.  A  line 
drawn  from  the  Vistula  southward  to  the  Danube  nearly  represents 
their  eastern  boundary,  while,  up  to  this  time,  they  do  not  appear 
to  have  crossed  the  Danube  on  the  south.  The  district  between 
that  river  and  the  Alps,  now  Bavaria  and  Styria,  was  occupied  by 
Celtic  tribes.  Northward  they  had  made  some  advance  into 
Sweden,  and  probably  also  into  Norway.  They  thus  occupied 
nearly  all  of  central  Europe  north  of  the  Alpine  chain. 

At  the  time  of  their  first  contact  with  the  Romans  these  Ger- 
manic tribes  had  lost  even  the  tradition  of  their  Asiatic  origin. 
They  supposed  themselves  to  have  originated  upon  the  soil  where 
they  dwelt,  sprung  either  from  the  earth  or  descended  from  their 
gods.  According  to  the  most  popular  legend,  the  war-god  Tuisko, 
or  Tiu,  had  a  son,  Mannus  (whence  the  word  man  is  derived), 
who  was  the  first  human  parent  of  the  German  race.  Many  cen- 
turies must  have  elapsed  since  their  first  settlement  in  Europe,  or 
they  could  not  have  so  completely  changed  the  forms  of  their 
religion  and  their  traditional  history. 

Two  or  three  small  tribes  are  represented,  in  the  earliest  Roman 
accounts,  as  having  crossed  the  Rhine  and  settled  between  the 
Vosges  and  that  river,  from  Strasburg  to  Mayence.  From  the 
latter  point  to  Cologne  none  are  mentioned,  whence  it  is  conjectured 


6  GERMANY 

102-70    B.C. 

that  the  western  bank  of  the  Rhine  was  here  a  debatable  ground, 
possessed  sometimes  by  the  Celts  and  sometimes  by  the  Germans. 
The  greater  part  of  Belgium  was  occupied  by  the  Eburones  and 
Condrusii,  Germanic  tribes,  to  whom  were  afterward  added  the 
Aduatuci,  formed  out  of  the  fragments  of  the  Cimbrians  and  Teu- 
tons who  escaped  the  slaughters  of  Marius.  At  the  mouth  of  the 
Rhine  dwelt  the  Batavi,  the  forefathers  of  the  Dutch,  and,  like 
them,  reported  to  be  strong,  phlegmatic,  and  stubborn,  in  the  time 
of  Caesar.  A  little  eastward,  on  the  shore  of  the  North  Sea,  dwelt 
the  Frisii,  where  they  still  dwell,  in  the  province  of  Friesland; 
and  beyond  them,  about  the  mouth  of  the  Weser,  the  Chauci,  a 
kindred  tribe. 

What  is  now  Westphalia  was  inhabited  by  the  Sicambrians, 
a  brave  and  warlike  people ;  the  Marsi  and  Ampsivarii  were  beyond 
them,  toward  the  Harz,  and  south  of  the  latter  the  Ubii,  once  a 
powerful  tribe,  but  in  Caesar's  time  weak  and  submissive.  From 
the  Weser  to  the  Elbe,  in  the  north,  was  the  land  of  the  Cherusci ; 
south  of  them  the  equally  fierce  and  indomitable  Chatti,  the  an- 
cestors of  the  modem  Hessians;  and  still  farther  south,  along  the 
headwaters  of  the  River  Main,  the  Marcomanni.  A  part  of  what 
is  now  Saxony  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Hermunduri,  who 
together  with  their  kindred,  the  Chatti,  were  called  Suevi  by  the 
Romans.  Northward,  toward  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  dwelt  the 
Longobardi  (Lombards);  beyond  them,  in  Holstein,  the  Saxons; 
and  north  of  the  latter,  in  Schleswig,  the  Angles. 

East  of  the  Elbe  were  the  Semnones,  who  were  guardians  of 
a  certain  holy  place, — a  grove  of  the  Druids, — where  various 
related  tribes  came  for  their  religious  festivals.  North  of  the 
Semnones  dwelt  the  Vandals,  and  along  the  Baltic  coast  the  Rugii, 
who  have  left  their  name  in  the  island  of  Riigen.  Between  these 
and  the  Vistula  were  the  Burgundiones,  with  a  few  smaller  tribes. 
In  the  extreme  northeast,  between  the  Vistula  and  the  point  where 
the  city  of  Konigsberg  now  stands,  was  the  home  of  the  Goths, 
south  of  whom  were  settled  the  Slavonic  Sarmatians — the  same 
who  founded,  long  afterward,  the  kingdom  of  Poland. 

Bohemia  was  first  settled  by  the  Celtic  tribe  of  the  Boii,  whence 
its  name — Boiheim,  the  home  of  the  Boii — is  derived.  In  Caesar's 
day,  however,  this  tribe  had  been  driven  out  by  the  Germanic  Mar- 
comanni, whose  neighbors,  the  Quadi,  on  the  Danube,  were  also 
Gennan.     Beyond  the  Danube  all  was  Celtic;    the  defeated  Boii 


ANCIENT     GERMANS  7 

102-70   B.C. 

roccupied  Austria;  the  Vindelici,  Bavaria;  while  the  Noric  and 
r^haetian  Celts  took  possession  of  the  Tyrolese  Alps.  Switzerland 
was  inhabited  by  the  Helvetii,  a  Celtic  tribe  which  had  been  driven 
out  of  Germany;  but  the  mountainous  district  between  the  Rhine, 
the  Lake  of  Constance,  and  the  Danube,  now  called  the  Black  Forest, 
seems  to  have  had  no  permanent  owners. 

The  greater  part  of  Germany  was  thus  in  possession  of  Ger- 
manic tribes,  bound  to  each  other  by  blood,  by  their  common 
religion  and  their  habits  of  life.  At  this  early  period  their  virtues 
and  their  vices  were  strongly  marked.  They  were  not  savages,  for 
they  knew  the  first  necessary  arts  of  civilized  life,  and  they  had  a 
fixed  social  and  political  organization.  The  greater  part  of  the 
territory  which  they  inhabited  was  still  a  wilderness.  The  moun- 
tain chain  which  extends  through  central  Germany  from  the  Main 
to  the  Elbe  was  called  by  the  Romans  the  Hercynian  Forest.  It 
was  then  a  wild,  savage  region,  the  home  of  the  aurox  (a  kind  of 
wild  cattle),  the  bear,  and  the  elk.  The  lower  lands  to  the  north- 
ward of  this  forest  were  also  thickly  wooded  and  marshy,  with 
open  pastures  here  and  there,  where  the  tribes  settled  in  small 
communities,  kept  their  cattle,  and  cultivated  the  soil  only  enough 
to  supply  the  needs  of  life.  They  made  rough  roads  of  communi- 
cation, which  could  be  traversed  by  their  wagons,  and  the  frontiers 
of  each  tribe  were  usually  marked  by  guardhouses,  where  all  stran- 
gers were  detained  until  they  received  permission  to  enter  the 
territory. 

At  this  early  period  the  Germans  had  no  cities,  or  even  villages. 
Their  places  of  worship,  which  were  either  groves  of  venerable 
oak  trees  or  the  tops  of  mountains,  were  often  fortified ;  and  when 
attacked  in  the  open  country  they  made  a  temporary  defense  of 
their  wagons.  They  lived  in  log  houses,  which  were  surrounded 
by  stockades  spacious  enough  to  contain  the  cattle  and  horses  be- 
longing to  the  family.  A  few  fields  of  rye  and  barley  furnished 
each  homestead  with  bread  and  beer,  but  hunting  and  fishing  were 
their  chief  dependence.  The  women  cultivated  flax,  from  which 
they  made  a  coarse,  strong  linen ;  the  men  clothed  themselves  with 
furs  or  leather.  They  were  acquainted  with  the  smelting  and 
working  of  iron,  but  valued  gold  and  silver  only  for  the  sake  of 
ornament.  They  were  fond  of  bright  colors,  of  poetry  and  song, 
and  were  in  the  highest  degree  hospitable. 

The  three  principal   vices   of  the  Germans   were   indolence, 


8  GERMANY 

70    B.C. 

drunkenness,  and  gambling^.  Although  always  ready  for  the  toils 
and  dangers  of  war,  they  disliked  to  work  at  home.  When  the 
men  assembled  at  night,  and  the  great  ox-homs,  filled  with  mead 
or  beer,  were  passed  from  one  to  the  other,  they  rarely  ceased 
until  all  were  intoxicated;  and  when  the  passion  for  gambling 
came  upon  them,  they  would  often  stake  their  dearest  possessions, 
even  their  own  freedom,  on  a  throw  of  the  dice.  The  women  were 
never  present  on  these  occasions:  they  ruled  and  regulated  their 
households  with  undisputed  sway.  They  were  considered  the  equals 
of  the  men,  and  exhibited  no  less  energy  and  courage.  They  were 
supposed  to  possess  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  always  accompanied 
the  men  to  battle,  where  they  took  care  of  the  wounded,  and  stimu- 
lated the  warriors  by  their  shouts  and  songs. 

They  honored  the  institution  of  marriage  to  an  extent  beyond 
that  exhibited  by  any  other  people  of  the  ancient  world.  The 
ceremony  consisted  in  the  man  giving  a  horse,  or  a  yoke  of  oxen, 
to  the  woman,  who  gave  him  arms  or  armor  in  return.  Those  who 
proved  unfaithful  to  the  marriage  vow  were  punished  with  death. 
The  children  of  freemen  and  slaves  grew  up  together,  until  the 
former  were  old  enough  to  carry  arms,  when  they  were  separated. 
The  slaves  were  divided  into  two  classes:  those  who  lived  under 
the  protection  of  a  freeman  and  were  obliged  to  perform  for  him 
a  certain  amount  of  labor,  and  those  who  were  wholly  "  chattels," 
bought  and  sold  at  will. 

Each  family  had  its  own  laws  for  the  government  of  its  free 
members,  its  retainers,  and  slaves.  A  number  of  these  families 
formed  "  a  district,"  which  was  generally  laid  out  according  to 
natural  boundaries,  such  as  streams  or  hills.  In  some  tribes,  how- 
ever, the  families  were  united  in  "  hundreds,"  instead  of  districts. 
Each  of  these  managed  its  own  affairs,  as  a  little  republic,  wherein 
each  freeman  had  an  equal  voice;  yet  to  each  belonged  a  leader, 
who  was  called  "  count  "  or  "  duke."  All  the  districts  of  a  tribe 
met  together  in  a  "  General  Assembly  of  the  People,"  which  was 
always  held  at  the  time  of  new  or  full  moon.  The  chief  priest  of 
the  tribe  presided,  and  each  freeman  present  had  the  right  to  vote. 
Here  questions  of  peace  or  war,  violations  of  right  or  disputes  be- 
tween the  districts,  were  decided,  criminals  were  tried,  young  men 
acknowledged  as  freemen  and  warriors,  and  in  case  of  approaching 
war  a  leader  chosen  by  the  people.  Alliances  between  the  tribes, 
for  the  sake  of  mutual  defense  or  invasion,  were  not  common  at 


ANCIENT    GERMANS  9 

70  B.C. 

first ;  but  the  necessity  of  them  was  soon  forced  upon  the  Germans  by, 
the  encroachments  of  Rome. 

The  gods  which  they  worshiped  represented  the  powers  of 
nature.  Their  mythology  was  the  same  originally  as  that  which 
the  Scandinavians  preserved,  in  a  slightly  different  form,  until  the 
tenth  century  of  our  era.  The  chief  deity  was  named  Wodan,  or 
Odin,  the  god  of  the  sky,  whose  worship  was  really  that  of  the 
sun.  His  son,  Donar,  or  Thunder,  with  his  fiery  beard  and  huge 
hammer,  is  the  Thor  of  the  Scandinavians.  The  god  of  war,  Tiu 
or  Tyr,  was  supposed  to  have  been  bom  from  the  earth,  and  thus 
became  the  ancestor  of  the  Germanic  tribes.  There  was  also  a 
goddess  of  the  earth,  Hertha,  who  was  worshiped  with  secret  and 
mysterious  rites.  The  people  had  their  religious  festivals,  at  stated 
seasons,  when  sacrifices,  sometimes  of  human  beings,  were  laid  upon 
the  altars  of  the  gods,  in  the  sacred  groves.  Even  after  they  be- 
came Christians,  in  the  eighth  century,  they  retained  their  habit 
of  celebrating  some  of  these  festivals,  but  changed  them  into  the 
Christian  anniversaries  of  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Whitsuntide. 

Thus,  from  all  we  can  learn  respecting  them,  we  may  say  that 
the  Germans,  during  the  first  century  before  Christ,  were  fully 
prepared,  by  their  habits,  laws,  and  their  moral  development,  for 
a  higher  civilization.  They  were  still  restless,  after  so  many  cen- 
turies of  wandering ;  they  were  fierce  and  fond  of  war,  as  a  natural 
consequence  of  their  struggles  with  the  neighboring  races ;  but  they 
had  already  acquired  a  love  for  the  wild  land  where  they  dwelt, 
they  had  begun  to  cultivate  the  soil,  they  had  purified  and  hallowed 
the  family  relation,  which  is  the  basis  of  all  good  government,  and 
finally,  although  slavery  existed  among  them,  they  had  established 
equal  rights  for  free  men. 

If  the  object  of  Rome  had  been  civilization,  instead  of  conquest 
and  plunder,  the  development  of  the  Germans  might  have  com- 
menced much  earlier  and  produced  very  different  results. 


Chapter    II 

THE   WARS   WITH    ROME.     70  B.C. -9   A,  D. 

AFTER  the  destruction  of  the  Teutons  and  Cimbrians  by 
l\  Marius,  more  than  forty  years  elapsed  before  the  Romans 
X  JL  again  came  in  contact  with  any  German  tribe.  During 
this  time  the  Roman  dominion  over  a  great  part  of  Gaul  was 
firmly  established  by  Julius  Caesar,  and  in  losing  their  independence 
the  Celts  began  to  lose,  also,  their  original  habits  and  character. 
They  and  the  Germans  had  never  been  very  peaceable  neighbors, 
and  the  possession  of  the  western  bank  of  the  Rhine  seems  to  have 
been,  even  at  that  early  day,  a  subject  of  contention  between  them. 
About  the  year  70  b.  c.  two  Gallic  tribes,  the  ^dui  in  Bur- 
gundy and  the  Arvemi  in  central  France,  began  a  struggle  for  the 
supremacy  in  that  part  of  Gaul.  The  allies  of  the  latter,  the  Se- 
quani,  called  to  their  assistance  a  chief  of  the  German  Suevi,  whose 
name,  as  we  have  it  through  Caesar,  was  Ariovistus.  With  a  force 
of  15,000  men  he  joined  the  Arverni  and  the  Sequani,  and  defeated 
the  JEdui  in  several  battles.  After  the  complete  overthrow  of  the 
latter  he  haughtily  demanded  as  a  recompense  one-third  of  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Sequani.  His  strength  had  meanwhile  been  increased 
by  new  accessions  from  the  German  side  of  the  Rhine,  and  the 
Sequani  were  obliged  to  yield.  His  followers  settled  in  the  new 
territory;  in  the  course  of  about  fourteen  years  they  amounted  to 
120,000,  and  Ariovistus  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  demand  an- 
other third  of  the  lands  of  the  Sequani. 

Southern  France  was  then  a  Roman  province,  governed  by 
Julius  Caesar.  In  the  year  57  b.  c.  ambassadors  from  the  princi- 
pal tribes  of  eastern  Gaul  appeared  before  him  and  implored  his  as- 
sistance against  the  inroads  of  the  Suevi.  It  was  an  opportunity 
which  he  immediately  seized,  in  order  to  bring  the  remaining  Gallic 
tribes  under  the  sway  of  Rome.  He  first  sent  a  summons  to  Ario- 
vistus to  appear  before  him,  but  the  haughty  German  chief  an- 
swered: "  When  I  need  Caesar,  I  shall  come  to  Caesar.    If  Caesar 

10 


WARSWITHROME  11 

57  B.C 

needs  me,  let  him  seek  me.     What  business  has  he  in  my  Gaul, 
which  I  have  acquired  in  war?" 

On  receiving  this  answer  Caesar  marched  immediately  with 
his  legions  into  the  land  of  the  Sequani,  and  succeeded  in  reaching 
their  capital,  Vesontio  (the  modern  Besangon),  before  the  enemy. 
It  was  then  a  fortified  place,  and  its  possession  gave  Csesar  an 
important  advantage  at  the  start.  While  his  legions  were  resting 
there  for  a  few  days,  before  beginning  the  march  against  the  Suevi, 
the  Gallic  and  Roman  merchants  and  traders  circulated  through 
the  Roman  camp  frightful  accounts  of  the  strength  and  fierceness 
of  the  Suevi.  They  reported  that  the  German  barbarians  were 
men  of  giant  size  and  more  than  human  strength,  whose  faces  were 
so  terrible  that  the  glances  of  their  eyes  could  not  be  endured. 
Very  soon  numbers  of  the  Roman  officers  demanded  leave  of  ab- 
sence, and  even  the  few  who  were  ashamed  to  take  this  step  lost 
all  courage.  The  soldiers  became  so  demoralized  that  many  of  them 
declared  openly  that  they  would  refuse  to  fight  if  commanded 
to  do  so. 

In  this  emergency  Csesar  showed  his  genius  as  a  leader  of 
men.  He  called  a  large  number  of  soldiers  and  officers  of  all  grades 
together,  and  addressed  them  in  strong  words,  pointing  out  their 
superior  military  discipline,  ridiculing  the  terrible  stories  in  circu- 
lation, and  sharply  censuring  them  for  their  insubordination.  He 
concluded  by  declaring  that  if  the  army  should  refuse  to  march, 
he  would  start  the  next  morning  with  only  the  tenth  legion,  upon 
the  courage  and  obedience  of  which  he  could  rely.  This  speech 
produced  an  immediate  effect.  The  tenth  legion  solemnly  thanked 
Caesar  for  his  confidence  in  its  men  and  officers,  the  other  legions, 
one  after  the  other,  declared  their  readiness  to  follow,  and  the 
whole  army  left  Vesontio  the  very  next  morning.  After  a  rapid 
march  of  seven  days  Csesar  found  himself  within  a  short  distance 
of  the  fortified  camp  of  Ariovistus. 

The  German  chief  ilow  agreed  to  an  interview,  and  the  two 
leaders  met,  halfway  between  the  two  armies,  on  the  plain  of  the 
Rhine.  The  place  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  little  to  the  northward 
of  Basel.  Neither  Csesar  nor  Ariovistus  would  yield  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  other,  and  as  the  cavalry  of  their  armies  began 
skirmishing,  the  interview  was  broken  off.  For  several  days  in 
succession  the  Romans  offered  battle,  but  the  Suevi  refused  to 
leave  their  strong  position.     This  hesitation  seemed  remarkable. 


It  GERMANY 

57-53    B.C. 

until  it  was  explained  by  some  prisoners,  captured  in  a  skirmish, 
who  stated  that  the  German  priestesses  had  prophesied  misfortune 
to  Ariovistus  if  he  should  fight  before  the  new  moon. 

Caesar  thereupon  determined  to  attack  the  German  camp 
without  delay.  The  meeting  of  the  two  armies  was  fierce,  and 
the  soldiers  were  soon  fighting  hand  to  hand.  On  each  side  one 
wing  gave  way,  but  the  greater  quickness  and  superior  military 
skill  of  the  Romans  enabled  them  to  recover  sooner  than  the  enemy. 
The  day  ended  with  the  entire  defeat  of  the  Suevi,  and  the  flight 
of  the  few  who  escaped  across  the  Rhine.  They  did  not  attempt 
to  reconquer  their  lost  territory,  and  the  three  small  German  tribes 
who  had  long  been  settled  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Vosges  (in 
what  is  now  Alsatia)  became  subject  to  Roman  rule. 

Two  years  afterward  Caesar,  who  was  engaged  in  subjugating 
the  Belgae,  in  northern  Gaul,  learned  that  two  other  German  tribes, 
the  Usipetes  and  Tencteres,  who  had  been  driven  from  their  homes 
by  the  Suevi,  had  crossed  the  Rhine  below  where  Cologne  now 
stands.  They  numbered  400,000,  and  the  northern  Gauls,  instead 
of  regarding  them  as  invaders,  were  inclined  to  welcome  them  as 
allies  against  Rome,  the  common  enemy.  Caesar  knew  that  if  they 
remained,  a  revolt  of  the  Gauls  against  his  rule  would  be  the  con- 
sequence. He  therefore  hastened  to  meet  them,  got  possession 
of  their  principal  chiefs  by  treachery,  and  then  attacked  their 
camp  between  the  Meuse  and  the  Rhine.  The  Germans  were 
defeated,  and  nearly  all  their  foot-soldiers  slaughtered,  but  the 
cavalry  succeeded  in  crossing  the  river,  where  they  were  welcomed 
by  the  Sicambrians. 

Then  it  was  that  Caesar  built  his  famous  wooden  bridge  across 
the  Rhine,  not  far  from  the  site  of  Cologne,  although  the  precise 
point  cannot  now  be  ascertained.  He  crossed  with  his  army  into 
Westphalia,  but  the  tribes  he  sought  retreated  into  the  great  forests 
to  the  eastward,  where  he  was  unable  to  pursue  them.  He  con- 
tented himself  for  eighteen  days  with  burning  their  houses  and 
gathering  their  ripened  harvests,  when  he  returned  to  the  other 
side  and  destroyed  the  bridge  behind  him.  From  this  time  Rome 
claimed  the  sovereignty  of  the  western  bank  of  the  Rhine  to  its 
mouth. 

While  Caesar  was  in  Britain,  in  the  year  53  b.  c,  the  newly 
subjugated  Celtic  and  German  tribes  which  inhabited  Belgium  rose 
in  open  revolt  against  the  Roman  rule.    The  rapidity  of  Caesar's 


WARSWITHROME  13 

63-15    B.C. 

return  arrested  their  temporary  success,  but  some  of  the  German 
tribes  to  the  eastward  of  the  Rhine  had  already  promised  to  aid 
them.  In  order  to  secure  his  conquests,  the  Roman  general  deter- 
mined to  cross  the  Rhine  again,  and  intimidate,  if  not  subdue,  his 
dangerous  neighbors.  He  built  a  second  bridge,  near  the  place 
where  the  first  had  been,  and  crossed  with  his  army.  But,  as  before, 
the  Suevi  and  Sicambrians  drew  back  among  the  forest-covered 
hills  along  the  Weser  River,  and  only  the  small  and  peaceful  tribe 
of  the  Ubii  remained  in  their  homes.  The  latter  offered  their  sub- 
mission to  Caesar,  and  agreed  to  furnish  him  with  news  of  the 
future  movements  of  their  warlike  countrymen,  in  return  for  his 
protection. 

When  another  revolt  of  the  Celtic  Gauls  took  place,  the  follow- 
ing year,  German  mercenaries,  enlisted  among  the  Ubii,  fought  on 
the  Roman  side  and  took  an  important  part  in  the  decisive  battle 
which  gave  Vercingetorix,  the  last  chief  of  the  Gauls,  into  Caesar's 
hands.  He  was  beheaded,  and  from  that  time  the  Gauls  made  no 
further  effort  to  throw  off  the  Roman  yoke.  They  accepted  the 
civil  and  military  organization,  the  dress  and  habits,  and  finally 
the  language  and  religion  of  their  conquerors.  The  .small  German 
tribes  in  Alsatia  and  Belgium  shared  the  same  fate:  their  territory 
was  divided  by  the  Romans  into  two  provinces,  called  Upper  and 
Lower  Germania.  The  vast  region  inhabited  by  the  independent 
tribes,  lying  between  the  Rhine,  the  Vistula,  the  North  Sea,  and  the 
Danube,  was  thenceforth  named  Germania  Magna. 

Caesar's  renown  among  the  Germans,  and  probably  also  his 
skill  in  dealing  with  them,  was  so  great  that  when  he  left  Gaul  to 
return  to  Rome  he  took  with  him  a  German  legion  of  6000  men, 
which  afterward  fought  on  his  side  against  Pompey  on  the  battle- 
field of  Pharsalus.  The  Roman  agents  penetrated  into  the  interior 
of  the  country,  and  enlisted  a  great  many  of  the  free  Germans,  who 
were  tempted  by  the  prospect  of  good  pay  and  booty.  Even  the 
younger  sons  of  the  chiefs  entered  the  Roman  army  for  the  sake  of 
a  better  military  education. 

No  movement  of  any  consequence  took  place  for  more  than 
twenty  years  after  Caesar's  last  departure  from  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine.  The  Romans,  having  secured  their  possession  of  Gaul,  now 
turned  their  attention  to  the  subjugation  of  the  Celtic  tribes  inhabit- 
ing the  Alps  and  the  lowlands  south  of  the  Danube,  from  the  Lake 
of  Constance  to  Vienna.    This  work  had  also  been  begun  by  Caesar ; 


14 


GERMANY 


15*11  B.C. 

it  was  continued  by  the  Emperor  Augustus,  whose  step-sons,  Tiber- 
ius and  Drusus,  finally  overcame  the  desperate  resistance  of  the 
native  tribes.  In  the  year  15  b.  c.  the  Danube  became  the  boundary 
between  Rome  and  Germany  on  the  south,  as  the  Rhine  already  was 
on  the  west.  The  Roman  provinces  of  Rhaeti,  Noricum,  and 
Pannonia  were  formed  out  of  the  conquered  territory. 

Augustus  now  sent  Drusus,  with  a  large  army,  to  the  Rhine, 
instructing  him  to  undertake  a  campaign  against  the  independent 
German  tribes.  Drusus  built  a  large  fleet  on  the  Rhine,  descended 
that  river  nearly  to  its  mouth,  cut  a  canal  for  his  vessels  to  a  lake 


CERMANIA    MAGNA 


which  is  now  the  Zuyder  Zee,  and  thus  entered  the  North  Sea. 
It  was  a  bold  undertaking,  but  did  not  succeed.  He  reached  the 
mouth  of  the  River  Ems  with  his  fleet,  when  the  weather  became 
so  tempestuous  that  he  was  obliged  to  return. 

The  next  year,  1 1  b.  c,  he  made  an  expedition  into  the  land 
of  the  Sicambrians,  during  which  his  situation  was  often  hazardous ; 
but  he  succeeded  in  penetrating  rather  more  than  a  hundred  miles 
to  the  eastward  of  the  Rhine,  and  establishing — not  far  from  where 
the  city  of  Paderborn  now  stands — a  fortress  called  Aliso,  which 
became  a  base  for  later  operations  against  the  German  tribes.  He 
next  set  about  building  a  series  of  fortresses,  fifty  in  number,  along 
the  western  bank  of  the  Rhine.     Around  the  most  important  of 


WARSWITHROME  15 

11-7   B.C. 

these  towns  immediately  sprang  up  and  thus  were  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  cities  of  Strasburg,  Mayence,  Coblentz,  Cologne,  and 
many  smaller  places. 

In  the  year  9  b.  c.  Drusus  marched  again  into  Germany.  He 
defeated  the  Chatti  in  several  bloody  battles,  crossed  the  passes  of 
the  Thuringian  Forest,  and  forced  his  way  through  the  land  of 
the  Cherusci  (the  Harz  region)  to  the  Elbe.  The  legend  says 
that  he  there  encountered  a  German  prophetess,  who  threatened  him 
with  coming  evil,  whereupon  he  turned  about  and  retraced  his  way 
toward  the  Rhine.  He  died,  however,  during  the  march,  and  his 
dejected  army  had  great  difficulty  in  reaching  the  safe  line  of  their 
fortresses. 

Tiberius  succeeded  to  the  command  left  vacant  by  the  death 
of  his  brother,  Drusus.  Less  daring,  but  of  a  more  cautious  and 
scheming  nature,  he  began  by  taking  possession  of  the  land  of 
the  Sicambrians  and  colonizing  a  part  of  the  tribe  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  Rhine.  He  then  gradually  extended  his  power,  and  in 
the  course  of  two  years  brought  nearly  the  whole  country  between 
the  Rhine  and  Weser  under  the  rule  of  Rome. 

Of  the  German  tribes  who  still  remained  independent,  there 
were  the  Semnones,  Saxons,  and  Angles,  east  of  the  Elbe,  and  the 
Burgundians,  Vandals,  and  Goths,  along  the  shore  of  the  Baltic, 
together  with  one  powerful  tribe  in  Bohemia.  The  latter,  the 
Marcomanni,  who  seem  to  have  left  their  original  home  in  Baden 
and  Wiirtemberg  on  account  of  the  approach  of  the  Romans,  now 
felt  that  their  independence  was  a  second  time  seriously  threatened. 
Their  first  measure  of  defense,  therefore,  was  to  strengthen  them- 
selves by  alliances  with  kindred  tribes. 

The  chief  of  the  Marcomanni,  named  Marbod,  was  a  man  of 
unusual  capacity  and  energy.  It  seems  that  he  was  educated  as  a 
Roman.  This  rendered  him  a  more  dangerous  enemy,  though  it 
also  made  him  an  object  of  suspicion,  and  perhaps  jealousy,  to 
the  other  German  chieftains.  Nevertheless  he  succeeded  in  uniting 
nearly  all  the  independent  tribes  east  of  the  Elbe  under  his  command 
and  in  organizing  a  standing  army  of  70,000  foot  and  4000  horse, 
which,  disciplined  like  the  Roman  legions,  might  be  considered 
a  match  for  any  equal  number.  His  success  created  so  much  anxiety 
in  Rome  that  Augustus  determined  to  send  a  force  of  twelve 
legions  against  Marbod.  Precisely  at  this  time  a  great  insur- 
rection broke  out  in  Dalmatia  and  Pannonia,  and  when  it  was  sup- 


16  GERMANY 

7    B.C.-9    A.D. 

pressed,  after  a  struggle  of  three  years,  the  Romans  found  it  prudent 
to  offer  peace  to  Marbod,  and  he  to  accept  it. 

While  Augustus  was  occupied  in  putting  down  the  insurrec- 
tion in  Dalmatia  and  Pannonia,  with  a  prospect,  it  seemed,  of 
having  to  fight  the  Marcomanni  afterward,  his  representative  in 
Germany  was  Quinctillius  Varus.  Tiberius,  in  spite  of  his  later 
vices  as  emperor,  was  prudent  and  conciliatory  in  his  conquests; 
but  Varus,  a  man  of  despotic  and  relentless  character,  soon  turned 
the  respect  of  the  Germans  for  the  Roman  power  into  the  fiercest 
hatred.  He  applied,  in  a  more  brutal  form,  the  same  measures 
which  had  been  forced  upon  the  Gauls.  He  overturned,  at  one 
blow,  all  the  native  forms  of  law,  introduced  heavy  taxes,  which 
were  collected  by  force,  punished  with  shameful  death  crimes  which 
the  people  considered  trivial,  and  decided  all  matters  in  Roman 
courts  and  in  a  language  which  was  not  yet  understood. 

This  violent  and  reckless  policy,  which  Varus  enforced  with 
a  hand  of  iron,  produced  an  effect  the  reverse  of  what  he  anticipated. 
The  German  tribes,  with  hardly  an  exception,  determined  to  make 
another  effort  to  regain  their  independence;  but  they  had  been 
taught  wisdom  by  seventy  years  of  conflict  with  the  Roman  power. 
Up  to  this  time  each  tribe  had  acted  for  itself,  without  concert 
with  its  neighbors.  They  saw,  now,  that  no  single  tribe  could  cope 
successfully  with  Rome:  it  was  necessary  that  all  should  be  united 
as  one  people;  and  they  only  waited  until  such  a  union  could  be 
secretly  established  before  rising  to  throw  off  the  unendurable  yoke 
which  Varus  had  laid  upon  them. 


Chapter    III 

HERMANN,    THE   FIRST   GERMAN   LEADER.    9-21    A.  D. 

THE  Chenisci,  who  inhabited  a  part  of  the  land  between 
the  Weser  and  the  Elbe,  including  the  Harz  Mountains, 
were  the  most  powerful  of  the  tribes  conquered  by 
Tiberius.  They  had  no  permanent  class  of  nobles,  as  none  of  the 
early  Germans  seem  to  have  had,  but  certain  families  were  dis- 
tinguished for  their  abilities  and  their  character,  or  the  services 
which  they  had  rendered  to  their  people  in  war.  The  head  of  one 
of  these  Cheruscan  families  was  Segimar,  one  of  whose  sons  was 
named  Hermann.  The  latter  entered  the  Roman  service  as  a  youth, 
distinguished  himself  by  his  military  talent,  was  made  a  Roman 
knight,  and  commanded  one  of  the  legions  which  were  employed 
by  Augustus  in  suppressing  the  great  insurrection  of  the  Dalmatians 
and  Pannonians.  It  seems  probable  that  he  visited  Rome  at  the 
period  of  its  highest  power  and  splendor ;  it  is  certain,  at  least,  that 
he  comprehended  the  political  system  by  means  of  which  the  empire 
had  become  so  great. 

When  Hermann  returned  to  his  people  he  was  a  man  of  twenty- 
five  and  already  an  experienced  commander.  He  is  described  by 
the  Latin  writers  as  a  chief  of  fine  personal  presence,  great  strength, 
an  animated  countenance,  and  bright  eyes.  He  was  always  self- 
possessed,  quick  in  action,  yet  never  rash  or  heedless.  He  found 
the  Cherusci  and  all  the  neighboring  tribes  filled  with  hatred  of  the 
Roman  rule  and  burning  to  revenge  the  injuries  they  had  suffered. 
His  first  movement  was  to  organize  a  secret  conspiracy  among  the 
tribes  which  could  be  called  into  action  as  soon  as  a  fortunate  op- 
portunity should  arrive.  Varus  was  then  (9  a.  d)  encamped  near 
the  Weser,  in  the  land  of  the  Saxons,  with  an  army  of  40,000 
men,  the  best  of  the  Roman  legions.  Hermann  was  still  in  the 
Roman  service,  and  held  a  command  under  him.  But  among  the 
other  Germans  in  the  Roman  camp  was  Segestes,  a  chief  of  the 
Cherusci,  whose  daughter,  Thusnelda,  Hermann  had  stolen  away 
from  him  and  married.  Thusnelda  was  afterward  celebrated  in 
the  German  legends  as  a  high-hearted,  patriotic  woman,  who  was 

17 


18  GERMANY 

9  A.D. 

devotedly  attached  to  Hermann;  but  her  father,  Segestes,  became 
his  bitterest  enemy. 

In  engaging  the  different  tribes  to  unite  Hermann  had  great 
difficulties  to  overcome.  They  were  not  only  jealous  of  each  other, 
remembering  ancient  quarrels  between  themselves,  but  many  fam- 
ilies in  each  tribe  were  disposed  to  submit  to  Rome,  being  either 
hopeless  of  succeeding  or'tempted  by  the  chance  of  office  and  wealth 
under  the  Roman  government.  Hermann's  own  brother,  Flavus, 
had  become,  and  always  remained,  a  Roman;  other  members  of 
his  family  were  opposed  to  his  undertaking,  and  it  seems  that  only 
his  mother  and  his  wife  encouraged  him  with  their  sympathy. 
Nevertheless,  he  formed  his  plans  with  as  much  skill  as  boldness, 
while  still  serving  in  the  army  of  Varus.  He  caused  messengers  to 
come  to  Varus,  declaring  that  a  dangerous  insurrection  had  broken 
out  in  the  lands  between  him  and  the  Rhine.  This  was  in  the  month 
of  September,  and  Varus,  believing  the  reports,  broke  up  his  camp 
and  set  out  to  suppress  the  insurrection  before  the  winter.  His 
nearest  way  led  through  the  wooded,  mountainous  country  along 
the  Weser,  which  is  now  called  the  Teutoburger  Forest.  According 
to  one  account,  Hermann  was  left  behind  to  collect  the  auxiliary 
German  troops,  and  then,  with  them,  rejoin  his  general.  It  is 
certain  that  he  remained,  and  instantly  sent  his  messengers  to  all 
the  tribes  engaged  in  the  conspiracy,  whose  warriors  came  to  him 
with  all  speed.  In  a  few  days  he  had  an  army  probably  equal  in 
numbers  to  that  of  Varus.  In  the  meantime  the  season  had 
changed:  violent  autumn  storms  burst  over  the  land,  and  the 
Romans  slowly  advanced  through  the  forests  and  mountain  passes 
in  the  wind  and  rain. 

Hermann  knefw  the  ground  and  was  able  to  choose  the  best 
point  of  attack.  With  his  army,  hastily  organized,  be  burst  upon 
the  legions  of  Varus,  who  resisted  him,  the  first  day,  with  their 
accustomed  valor.  But  the  attack  was  renewed  the  second  day,  and 
the  endurance  of  the  Roman  troops  began  to  give  way;  they  held 
their  ground  with  difficulty,  but  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost, 
for  there  was  now  only  one  mountain  ridge  to  be  passed.  Beyond 
it  lay  the  broad  plains  of  Westphalia,  with  fortresses  and  military 
roads,  where  they  had  better  chances  of  defense.  When  the  third 
day  dawned  the  storm  was  fiercer  than  ever.  The  Roman  army 
crossed  the  summit  of  the  last  ridge  and  saw  the  securer  plains  before 
them.     They  commenced  descending  the  long  slope,  but,  just  as 


FIRST     GERMAN     LEADER  19 

9-15   A.D. 

they  reached  three  steep  wooded  ravines  which  were  still  to  be 
traversed,  the  Germans  swept  down  upon  them  from  the  summits 
like  a  torrent,  with  shouts  and  far-sounding  songs  of  battle. 

A  complete  panic  seized  the  exhausted  and  disheartened  Roman 
troops,  and  the  fight  soon  became  a  slaughter.  Varus,  wounded, 
threw  himself  upon  his  sword;  the  wooded  passes  below  were 
occupied  in  advance  by  the  Germans;  hardly  enough  escaped  to 
carry  the  news  of  the  terrible  defeat  to  the  Roman  frontier  on  the 
Rhine.  Those  who  escaped  death  were  sacrificed  upon  the  altars 
of  the  gods,  and  the  fiercest  revenge  was  visited  upon  the  Roman 
judges,  lawyers,  and  civil  officers  who  had  trampled  upon  all  the 
hallowed  laws  and  customs  of  the  people.  The  news  of  this  great 
German  victory  reached  Rome  in  the  midst  of  the  rejoicings  over 
the  suppression  of  the  insurrection  in  Dalmatia  anxi  Pannonia,  and 
turned  the  triumph  into  mourning.  The  aged  Augustus  feared  the 
overthrow  of  his  power.  He  was  unable  to  comprehend  such  a 
sudden  and  terrible  disaster:  he  let  his  hair  and  beard  grow  for 
months,  as  a  sig^  of  his  trouble,  and  was  often  heard  to  cry  aloud : 
"  O  Varus,  Varus,  give  me  back  my  legions !  " 

The  location  of  the  battlefield  where  Hermann  defeated  Varus 
has  been  preserved  by  tradition.  The  long  southern  slope  of  the 
mountain,  near  Detmold,  now  bare,  but  surrounded  by  forests,  is 
called  to  this  day  the  Winfield.  Around  the  summit  of  the  moun- 
tain there  is  a  ring  of  huge  stones,  showing  that  it  was  originally 
consecrated  to  the  worship  of  the  ancient  pagan  deities.  Here  a 
pedestal  of  granite,  in  the  form  of  a  temple,  has  been  built,  and 
upon  it  has  been  placed  a  colossal  statue  of  Hermann  in  bronze, 
ninety  feet  high,  and  visible  at  a  distance  of  fifty  miles. 

Hermann's  deeds  were  afterward  celebrated  in  the  songs  of 
his  people,  as  they  have  been  in  modem  German  literature;  but 
the  best  results  of  his  victory  were  cast  away  by  the  people  whom 
he  had  liberated.  It  was  now  possible  to  organize  into  a  nation  the 
tribes  which  had  united  to  overthrow  the  Romans,  and  such  seems 
to  have  been  his  intention.  He  sent  the  head  of  Varus  to  Marbod, 
chief  of  the  Marcomanni,  whose  power  he  had  secured  by  carrying 
out  his  original  design;  but  he  failed  to  secure  the  friendship,  or 
even  the  neutrality,  of  the  rival  leader.  At  home  his  own  family 
— bitterest  among  them  all  his  father-in-law,  Segestes — opposed 
his  plans,  and  the  Cherusci  were  soon  divided  into  two  parties,  one 
headed  by  Hermann  and  the  other  headed  by  Segestes. 


20  GERMANY 

15-17  A.D. 

Hermann  succeeded  in  escaping  from  his  father-in-law,  by 
whom  he  had  been  captured  and  imprisoned,  and  began  to  form  a 
new  union  of  the  tribes.  His  first  design  was  to  release  his  wife, 
Thusnelda,  from  the  hands  of  Segestes,  and  then  destroy  the  au- 
thority of  the  latter,  who  was  the  head  of  the  faction  friendly  to 
Rome.  Meanwhile  the  Emperor  Augustus  had  died,  Tiberius  had 
left  Germany  to  take  up  the  reins  of  government  at  Rome,  and  his 
nephew,  Germanicus,  succeeded  to  thfe  command  in  Germany.  Ger- 
manicus  entered  Germany  in  the  summer  of  15  a.  d.  with  a  power- 
ful army  and  at  once  marched  to  aid  Segestes  against  Hermann. 
After  a  few  days  the  Romans  reached  the  scene  of  the  defeat  of 
Varus,  and  there  they  halted  to  bury  the  thousands  of  skeletons 
which  lay  wasting  on  the  mountain-side.  Then  they  met  Segestes, 
who  gave  up  his  own  daughter,  Thusnelda,  to  Germanicus  as  a 
captive. 

The  loss  of  his  wife  roused  Hermann  to  fury.  He  went  hither 
and  thither  among  the  tribes,  stirring  the  hearts  of  all  with  his 
fiery  addresses.  Germanicus  soon  perceived  that  a  storm  was 
gathering,  and  prepared  to  meet  it.  He  divided  his  army  into  two 
parts,  one  of  which  was  commanded  by  Caecina,  and  built  a  large 
fleet  which  transported  one-half  of  his  troops  by  sea  and  up  the 
Weser.  After  joining  Caecina,  he  marched  into  the  Teutoburger 
Forest.  Hermann  met  him  near  the  scene  of  his  great  victory 
over  Varus,  and  a  fierce  battle  was  fought.  According  to  the 
Romans,  neither  side  obtained  any  advantage  over  the  other ;  but 
Germanicus,  with  half  the  army,  fell  back  upon  his  fleet  and  returned 
to  the  Rhine  by  way  of  the  North  Sea. 

Caecina,  with  the  remnant  of  his  four  legions,  also  retreated 
across  the  country,  pursued  by  Hermann.  In  the  dark  forests  and 
on  the  marshy  plains  they  were  exposed  to  constant  assaults,  and 
were  obliged  to  fight  every  step  of  the  way.  Finally,  in  a  marshy 
valley,  the  site  of  which  cannot  be  discovered,  the  Germans  sud- 
denly attacked  the  Romans  on  all  sides.  Hermann  cried  out  to 
his  soldiers :  "  It  shall  be  another  day  of  Varus !  "  The  songs  of  the 
women  prophesied  triumph,  and  the  Romans  were  filled  with  fore- 
bodings of  defeat.  They  fought  desperately,  but  were  forced  to 
yield,  and  Hermann's  words  would  have  been  made  truth  had  not 
the  Germans  ceased  fighting  in  order  to  plunder  the  camp  of  their 
enemies.  The  latter  were  thus  able  to  cut  their  way  out  of  the 
valley  and  eventually,  by  forced  marches,  reached  the  Rhine.    The 


FIRST     GERMAN     LEADER  21 

17-19   A.D. 

voyage  of  Germanicus  was  also  unfortunate:  he  encountered  a 
violent  storm  on  the  coast  of  Holland,  and  two  of  his  legions  barely 
escaped  destruction.  He  had  nothing  to  show,  as  the  result  of  his 
campaign,  except  his  captive  Thusnelda,  and  her  son,  who  walked 
behind  his  triumphal  chariot  in  Rome  three  years  afterward,  and 
never  again  saw  their  native  land ;  and  his  ally,  the  traitor  Segestes, 
who  ended  his  contemptible  life  somewhere  in  Gaul,  under  Roman 
protection. 

Germanicus  was  a  man  of  great  ambition  and  of  astonishing 
energy.  He  was  determined  not  to  rest  until  he  had  completely 
subjugated  Germany  as  far  as  the  Elbe.  As  Julius  Caesar  had  made 
Gaul  Roman,  so  he  was  determined  to  make  Germany  Roman. 
He  began  his  preparations  for  another  expedition  in  17  a.  d.,  but 
the  Emperor  Tiberius,  jealous  of  his  increasing  renown,  recalled 
him  to  Rome,  saying  that  it  was  better  to  let  the  German  tribes 
exhaust  themselves  in  their  own  internal  discords  than  to  waste 
so  many  of  the  best  legions  in  subduing  them.  Germanicus  obeyed, 
returned  to  Rome,  had  his  grand  triumph,  and  was  then  sent  to 
the  East,  where  he  shortly  afterward  died,  it  was  supposed  by 
poison. 

The  words  of  the  shrewd  emperor  were  true :  two  rival  powers 
had  been  developed  in  Germany  through  the  resistance  to  Rome, 
and  they  soon  came  into  conflict.  Marbod,  chief  of  the  Mar- 
comanni,  and  many  allied  tribes,  had  maintained  his  position  with- 
out war;  but  Hermann,  now  the  recognized  head  of  the  Cherusci 
and  their  confederates,  who  had  destroyed  Varus  and  held  Ger- 
manicus at  bay,  possessed  a  popularity,  founded  on  his  heroism, 
which  spread  far  and  wide  through  the  German  land.  Even  at 
that  early  day  the  small  chiefs  in  each  tribe  (corresponding  to  the 
later  nobility)  were  opposed  to  the  broad,  patriotic  union  which 
Hermann  had  established,  because  it  weakened  their  power  and 
increased  that  of  the  people.  They  were  also  jealous  of  his  great 
authority  and  influence,  and  even  his  uncle,  Ingiomar,  who  had 
fought  bravely  against  Germanicus,  went  over  to  the  side  of  Mar- 
bod when  it  became  evident  that  the  rivalry  of  the  two  chiefs  must 
lead  to  war. 

In  the  year  19  a.  d.  Hermann  and  Marbod  marched  against  each 
other,  and  a  great  battle  took  place.  Although  neither  was  vic- 
torious, the  popularity  of  Hermann  drew  so  many  of  Marbod's 
allies  to  his  side  that  the  latter  fled  to  Italy  and  claimed  the  protec- 


StSt  GERMANY 

19-21     A.D. 

tion  of  Tiberius,  who  assigned  to  him  Ravenna  as  a  residence.    He 
died  there  nearly  twenty  years  later,  at  a  very  advanced  age. 

After  the  flight  of  Marbod,  Hermann  seems  to  have  devoted 
himself  to  the  creation  of  a  permanent  union  of  the  tribes  which 
he  had  commanded.  We  may  guess,  but  cannot  assert,  that  his 
object  was  to  establish  a  national  organization,  like  that  of  Rome, 
and  in  doing  this  he  must  have  come  into  conflict  with  laws  and 
customs  which  were  considered  sacred  by  the  people.  But  his 
remaining  days  were  too  few  for  even  the  beginning  of  a  task  which 
included  such  an  advance  in  the  civilization  of  the  race.  We  only 
know  that  he  was  waylaid  and  assassinated  by  members  of  his  own 
family,  in  the  year  21  a.  d.  He  was  then  thirty-seven  years  old  and 
had  been  for  thirteen  years  a  leader  of  his  people.  The  best  monu- 
ment to  his  ability  and  heroism  may  be  found  in  the  words  of  a 
Roman,  the  historian  Tacitus,  who  says :  "  He  was  undoubtedly 
the  liberator  of  Germany,  having  dared  to  grapple  with  the  Roman 
power,  not  in  its  beginnings,  like  other  kings  and  commanders,  but 
in  the  maturity  of  its  strength.  He  was  not  always  victorious  in 
battle,  but  in  war  he  was  never  subdued.  He  still  lives  in  the  songs 
of  the  Barbarians,  not  known  to  the  annals  of  the  Greeks,  who  only 
admire  that  which  belongs  to  themselves — nor  celebated  as  he  de- 
serves by  the  Romans,  who,  in  praising  the  olden  times,  neglect  the 
events  of  the  later  years." 


Chapter    IV 

THE  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES  OF  OUR  ERA 
21-300  A.  D. 

A  FTER  the  campaigns  of  Germanicus  and  the  death  of  Her- 
L\  mann  a  long  time  elasped  during  which  the  relation  of 
X  JL  Germany  to  the  Roman  Empire  might  be  called  a  truce. 
No  serious  attempt  was  made  by  the  unworthy  successors  of  Augus- 
tus to  extend  their  sway  beyond  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube;  and,  as  Tiberius  had  predicted,  the  German  tribes  were 
so  weakened  by  their  own  civil  wars  that  they  were  unable  to  cope 
with  a  power  such  as  Rome.  Even  the  Cherusci,  Hermann's  own 
people,  became  so  diminished  in  numbers  that  before  the  end  of 
the  first  century  they  ceased  to  exist  as  a  separate  tribe:  their 
fragments  were  divided  and  incorporated  with  their  neighbors  on 
either  side. 

About  the  middle  of  the  first  century,  however,  an  event  is 
mentioned  which  shows  that  the  Germans  were  beginning  to  ap- 
preciate and  imitate  the  superior  civilization  of  Rome.  The  Chauci, 
dwelling  on  the  shores  of  the  North  Sea,  built  a  fleet  and  sailed 
along  the  coast  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine,  which  they  entered  in 
the  hope  of  exciting  the  Batavi  and  Frisii  to  rebellion.  A  few  years 
afterward  the  Chatti,  probably  for  the  sake  of  plunder,  crossed 
the  Rhine  and  invaded  part  of  Gaul.  Both  attempts  failed  entirely; 
and  the  only  serious  movement  of  the  Germans  against  Rome 
during  the  century  took  place  while  Vitellius  and  Vespasian  were 
contending  for  the  possession  of  the  imperial  throne.  A  German 
prophetess,  by  the  name  of  Velleda,  whose  influence  seems  to  have 
extended  over  all  the  tribes,  promised  them  victory:  they  united, 
organized  their  forces,  crossed  the  Rhine,  and  even  laid  siege 
to  Mayence,  the  principal  Roman  city. 

The  success  of  Vespasian  over  his  rival  left  him  free  to  meet 
this  new  danger.  But  in  the  meantime  the  Batavi,  under  their 
chief,  Claudius  Civilis,  who  had  been  previously  fighting  on  the 
new  emperor's  side,  joined  the  Gauls  in  a  general  insurrection. 

23 


24  GERMANY 

70   A.D. 

This  was  so  successful  that  all  northern  Gaul,  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Rhine,  threw  off  the  Roman  yoke.  A  convention  of  the  chiefs 
was  held  at  Rheims,  in  order  to  found  a  Gallic  kingdom ;  but 
instead  of  adopting  measures  of  defense  they  quarreled  about  the 
selection  of  a  ruling  family,  the  future  capital  of  the  kingdom,  and 
other  matters  of  small  comparative  importance. 

The  approach  of  Cerealis,  the  Roman  general  sent  by  Ves- 
pasian with  a  powerful  army  in  the  year  70,  put  an  end  to  the 
Gallic  insurrection.  Most  of  the  Gallic  tribes  submitted  without 
resistance:  the  Treviri,  on  the  Moselle,  were  defeated  in  battle, 
the  cities  and  fortresses  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Rhine  were 
retaken,  and  the  Roman  frontier  was  reestablished.  Nevertheless, 
the  German  tribes  which  had  been  allied  with  the  Gauls — among 
them  the  Batavi — refused  to  submit,  and  they  were  strong  enough 
to  fight  two  bloody  battles,  in  which  Cerealis  was  only  saved  from 
defeat  by  what  the  Romans  considered  to  be  the  direct  interposition 
of  the  gods.  The  Batavi,  although  finally  subdued  in  their  home 
in  Holland,  succeeded  in  getting  possession  of  the  Roman  admiral's 
vessel,  by  a  night  attack  on  his  fleet  on  the  Rhine.  This  trophy 
they  sent  by  way  of  the  River  Lippe,  an  eastern  branch  of  the  Rhine, 
as  a  present  to  the  great  prophetess,  Velleda. 

The  defeat  of  the  German  tribes  by  Cerealis  was  not  followed 
by  a  new  Roman  invasion  of  their  territory.  The  Rhine  remained 
the  boundary,  although  the  Romans  crossed  the  river  at  various 
points  and  built  fortresses  upon  the  eastern  bank.  They  appear, 
in  like  manner,  to  have  crossed  the  Danube,  and  they  also  gradually 
acquired  possession  of  the  southwestern  corner  of  Germany  lying 
between  the  headwaters  of  that  river  and  the  Rhine.  This  region 
(now  occupied  by  Baden  and  part  of  Wiirtemberg)  had  been  de- 
serted by  the  Marcomanni  when  they  marched  to  Bohemia,  and  it 
does  not  appear  that  any  other  German  tribe  attempted  to  take 
permanent  possession  of  it.  Its  first  occupants,  the  Helvetians,  were 
now  settled  in  Switzerland. 

The  enlisting  of  Germans  to  serve  as  soldiers  in  the  Roman 
army,  begun  by  Julius  Caesar,  was  continued  by  the  emperors.  The 
proofs  of  their  heroism,  which  the  Germans  had  given  in  resisting 
Germanicus,  made  them  desirable  as  troops;  and,  since  they  were 
accustomed  to  fight  with  their  neighbors  at  home,  they  had  no 
scruples  in  fighting  them  under  the  banner  of  Rome.  Thus  one 
German  legion  after  another  was  formed,  taken  to  Rome,  Spain, 


FIRST     THREE     CENTURIES  25 

70-166  A.D. 

Greece,  or  the  East,  and  its  veterans,  if  they  returned  home  when 
disabled  by  age  or  wounds,  carried  with  them  stories  of  the  civiHzed 
world,  of  cities,  palaces  and  temples,  of  agriculture  and  the  arts, 
of  a  civil  and  political  system  far  wiser  and  stronger  than  their  own. 

The  series  of  Good  Emperors,  from  Vespasian  to  Marcus 
Aurelius  (70  to  180  a.  d.)  formed  military  colonies  of  their  veteran 
soldiers,  whether  German,  Gallic,  or  Roman,  in  the  region  originally 
inhabited  by  the  Marcomanni.  They  were  governed  by  Roman 
laws,  and  they  paid  a  tithe,  or  tenth  part,  of  their  revenues  to  the 
empire,  whence  this  district  was  called  the  Agri  Decumates,  or 
Tithe-Lands. 

To  protect  these  settled  regions  the  Romans  built  the  famous 
Limes  or  broad  fortification  wall,  flanked  at  intervals  by  fortresses 
and  watch-towers.  Traces  of  it  may  still  be  seen.  It  ran  from 
Ratisbon  on  the  Danube  to  the  River  Main,  and  thence  to  a  point 
on  the  Rhine  near  Cologne.  The  Roman  frontier  remained  thus 
clearly  defined  for  nearly  two  hundred  years.  On  their  side  of 
the  line  the  Romans  built  fortresses  and  cities,  which  they  con- 
nected by  good  highways,  and  introduced  a  better  system  of  agri- 
culture, established  commercial  intercourse,  not  only  between  their 
own  provinces,  but  also  with  the  independent  tribes,  and  thus  ex- 
tended the  influence  of  their  civilization.  For  the  first  time  fruit 
trees  were  planted  on  German  soil:  the  rich  cloths  and  ornaments 
of  Italy  and  the  East,  the  arms  and  armor,  the  gold  and  silver, 
and  the  wines  of  the  South  soon  found  a  market  within  the  Ger- 
man territory;  while  the  horses  and  cattle,  furs  and  down,  smoked 
beef  and  honey  of  the  Germans,  the  fish  of  their  streams,  and  the 
radishes  and  asparagus  raised  on  the  Rhine  were  sent  to  Rome  in 
exchange.  Wherever  the  Romans  discovered  a  healing  spring,  as 
at  Baden-Baden,  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  Spa,  they  built  splendid 
baths;  where  they  found  ores  or  marble  in  the  mountains  they  es- 
tablished mines  or  hewed  columns  for  their  temples,  and  the  native 
tribes  were  thus  taught  the  unsuspected  riches  of  their  own  land. 

For  nearly  a  hundred  years  after  Vespasian's  accession  to  the 
throne  there  was  no  serious  interruption  to  the  peaceful  intercourse 
of  the  two  races.  During  this  time  we  must  take  it  for  granted  that 
a  gradual  change  must  have  been  growing  up  in  the  habits  and 
ideas  of  the  Germans.  It  is  probable  that  they  then  began  to  col- 
lect in  villages;  to  use  stone  as  well  as  wood  in  building  their 
houses  and  fortresses;   to  depend  more  on  agriculture  and  less  on 


26  GERMANY 

166-180  A.D. 

hunting  and  fishing  for  their  subsistence;  and  to  desire  the  me- 
chanical skill,  the  arts  of  civilization,  which  the  Romans  possessed. 
The  extinction  of  many  smaller  tribes,  also,  taught  them  the  ne- 
cessity of  learning  to  subdue  their  internal  feuds,  and  assist  instead 
of  destroying  each  other.  On  the  north  of  them  was  the  sea ;  on 
the  east  the  Sarmatians  and  other  Slavonic  tribes,  much  more 
savage  than  tliemselves;  in  every  other  direction  they  were  con- 
fronted by  Rome.  The  complete  subjugation  of  their  Celtic  neigh- 
bors in  Gaul  was  always  before  their  eyes.  In  Hermann's  day  they 
were  still  too  ignorant  to  understand  the  necessity  of  his  plan  of 
union ;  but  now  that  tens  of  thousands  of  their  people  had  learned 
the  extent  and  power  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the  commercial 
intercourse  of  a  hundred  years  had  shown  them  their  own  de- 
ficiencies, they  reached  the  point  where  a  new  development  in  their 
history  became  possible. 

Such  a  development  came  to  disturb  the  reign  of  the  noble 
emperor,  Marcus  Aurelius,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century. 
About  the  year  i66  all  the  German  tribes,  from  the  Danube  to 
the  Baltic,  united  in  a  grand  movement  against  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  Marcomanni,  who  still  inhabited  Bohemia,  appear  as  their 
leaders,  and  the  Roman  writers  attach  their  name  to  the  long  and 
desperate  war  which  ensued.  We  have  no  knowledge  of  the  cause 
of  this  struggle,  the  manner  in  which  the  union  of  the  Germans 
was  effected,  or  even  the  names  of  their  leaders;  we  only  know 
that  their  invasion  of  the  Roman  territory  was  several  times  driven 
back  and  several  times  recommenced;  that  Marcus  Aurelius  died 
in  Vienna,  in  i8o,  without  having  seen  the  end;  and  that  his  son 
and  successor,  Commodus,  bought  a  peace  instead  of  winning  it 
by  the  sword.  At  one  time  during  the  war  the  Chatti  forced  their 
way  through  the  Tithe-Lands  and  Switzerland,  and  crossed  the 
Alps ;  at  another,  the  Marcomanni  and  Quadi  besieged  the  city  of 
Aquileia,  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Adriatic. 

The  ancient  boundary  between  the  Roman  Empire  and  Ger- 
many was  restored,  but  at  a  cost  which  the  former  could  not  pay 
a  second  time.  For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  longer  the  emperors 
preserved  their  territory.  Rome  still  ruled,  in  name,  from  Spain 
to  the  Tigris,  from  Scotland  to  the  Desert  of  Sahara,  but  her  power 
was  like  a  vast,  hollow  shell.  Luxury,  vice,  taxation,  and  con- 
tinual war  had  eaten  out  the  heart  of  the  empire ;  Italy  had  grown 
weak  and  was  slowly  losing  its  population,  and  the  same  causes 


FIRST     THREE     CENTURIES  27 

180-251    A.D. 

were  gradually  ruining  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Britain.  During  this 
period  the  German  tribes,  notwithstanding  their  terrible  losses  in 
war,  had  preserved  their  vigor  by  the  simplicity,  activity,  and 
morality  of  their  habits:  they  had  considerably  increased  in  num- 
bers, and  from  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius  on  they  felt  themselves 
secure  against  any  further  invasion  of  their  territory. 

Then  commenced  a  series  of  internal  changes,  concerning 
which,  unfortunately,  we  have  no  history.  We  can  only  guess  that 
their  origin  dates  from  the  union  of  all  the  principal  tribes  under 
the  lead  of  the  Marcomanni ;  but  whether  they  were  brought  about 
with  or  without  internal  wars ;  whether  wise  and  far-seeing  chiefs 
or  the  sentiment  of  the  people  themselves  contributed  most  to  their 
consummation;  finally,  when  these  changes  began  and  when  they 
were  completed — are  questions  "which  can  never  be  accurately 
settled. 

When  the  Germans  again  appear  in  history,  in  the  third  cen- 
tury of  our  era,  we  are  surprised  to  find  that  the  names  of  nearly 
all  the  tribes  with  which  we  are  familiar  have  disappeared,  and  new 
names,  of  much  wider  significance,  have  taken  their  places.  Instead 
of  twenty  or  thirty  small  divisions,  we  now  find  the  race  consoli- 
dated into  four  chief  nationalities,  with  two  other  inferior  though 
independent  branches.  We  also  find  that  the  geographical  situation 
of  the  latter  is  no  longer  the  same  as  that  of  the  smaller  tribes  out 
of  which  they  grew.  Migrations  must  have  taken  place,  large 
tracts  of  territory  must  have  changed  hands,  many  reigning  fami- 
lies must  have  been  overthrown,  and  new  ones  arisen.  In  short,  the 
change  in  the  organization  of  the  Germans  is  so  complete  that  it 
can  hardly  have  been  accomplished  by  peaceable  means.  Each  of 
the  new  nationalities  has  an  important  part  to  play  in  the  history 
of  the  following  centuries,  and  we  will  therefore  describe  them 
separately. 

The  name  of  the  Alemanni  (Allemannen,^  signifying  "  all 
men  "  )  shows  that  this  division  was  composed  of  fragments  of 
many  tribes.  The  Alemanni  first  made  their  appearance  along 
the  Main,  and  gradually  pushed  southward  over  the  Tithe-Lands, 
where  the  military  veterans  of  Rome  had  settled,  until  they  oc- 
cupied the  greater  part  of  southwestern  Germany,  and  eastern 
Switzerland,  to  the  Alps.  Their  descendants  inhabit  the  same  terri- 
tory to  this  day. 

The  Franks  are  believed  to  have  been  formed  out  of  the 
1  Alle-magnc  remains  to-day  the  French  name  for  Germany. 


«8  GERMANY 

251    A.O. 

Sicambrians  in  Westphalia,  together  with  a  portion  of  the  Chatti 
and  the  Batavi  in  Holland,  and  other  tribes.  We  first  hear  of  them 
on  the  Lx)wer  Rhine,  but  they  soon  extended  their  territory  over  a 
great  part  of  Belgium  and  Westphalia.  Their  chiefs  were  already 
called  kings,  and  their  authority  was  hereditary. 

The  Saxons  were  one  of  the  small,  original  tribes  settled  in 
Holstein.  But  they  soon  came  to  occupy  nearly  all  the  territory 
between  the  Harz  Mountains  and  the  North  Sea,  from  the  Elbe 
westward  to  the  Rhine.  The  Cherusci,  the  Chauci,  and  other  tribes 
named  by  Tacitus  were  evidently  incorporated  with  the  Saxons, 
who  exhibit  the  same  characteristics.  There  appears  to  have  been 
a  natural  enmity — ^no  doubt  bequeathed  from  the  earlier  tribes  out 
of  which  both  grew — between  them  and  the  Franks. 

The  Goths  in  their  traditions  state  that  they  were  settled  in 
Sweden  before  they  were  found  by  the  Greek  navigators  on  the 
southern  shore  of  the  Baltic,  in  330  B.  c.  It  is  probable  that  only 
a  portion  of  the  tribe  migrated,  and  that  the  present  Scandinavian 
race  is  descended  from  the  remainder.  As  the  Baltic  Goths  in- 
creased in  numbers,  they  gradually  ascended  the  Vistula,  pressed 
eastward  along  the  base  of  the  Carpathians  and  reached  the  Black 
Sea,  in  the  course  of  the  second  century  after  Christ.  Thus,  at  the 
time  when  they  first  came  in  contact  with  the  Romans,  about  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century  after  Christ,  the  Goths  possessed  a 
broad  belt  of  territory,  situated  north  of  the  lower  Danube  and 
Black  Sea,  and  separating  the  rest  of  Europe  from  the  wilder 
Slavonic  races  who  occupied  central  Russia. 

The  branch  called  the  Thuringians  had  only  a  short  national 
existence.  It  was  composed  of  the  Hermunduri,  with  fragments 
of  other  tribes  united  under  one  king,  and  occupied  all  of  central 
Germany,  from  the  Harz  Mountains  southward  to  the  Danube. 

The  Burgundians,  leaving  their  original  home  on  the  Baltic, 
between  the  Oder  and  the  Vistula,  crossed  the  greater  part  of 
Germany  in  a  southwestern  direction,  and  first  settled  in  a  portion 
of  what  is  now  Franconia,  between  the  Thuringians  and  the 
Alemanni.  Not  long  afterward,  however,  they  passed  through  the 
latter,  and  took  possession  of  the  country  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Rhine,  between  Strasburg  and  Mayence. 

The  Goths  steadily  became  more  and  more  troublesome  to  the 
Romans  on  the  lower  Danube.  In  251  the  Emperor  Decius  found 
his  death  among  the  marshes  of  Dacia    while  trying  to  stay  the 


FIRST     THREE     CENTURIES  29 

251-276  A.D. 

Gothic  invasion,  and  his  successor,  Gallus,  only  obtained  a  tem- 
porary peace  by  agreeing  to  pay  an  annual  sum  of  money,  thus 
really  making  Rome  a  tributary  power.  But  the  empire  had  be- 
come impoverished,  and  the  payment  soon  ceased.  Thereupon  the 
Goths  built  fleets  and  made  voyages  of  plunder,  first  to  Trebizond 
and  the  other  towns  on  the  Asiatic  shore  of  the  Black  Sea;  then 
they  passed  the  Hellespont,  took  and  plundered  the  great  city 
of  Nicomedia,  Ephesus  with  its  famous  temple,  the  Grecian  isles, 
and  even  Corinth,  Argos,  and  Athens.  In  the  meantime  the  Ale- 
manni  had  resumed  the  offensive:  they  came  through  the  Alps 
and  descended  to  Lake  Garda  in  northern  Italy. 

The  emperor,  Claudius  II.,  turned  back  this  double  invasion. 
He  defeated  and  drove  back  the  Alemanni,  and  then,  in  the  year 
270,  won  a  great  victory  over  the  Goths,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Thessalonica.  His  successor,  Aurelian,  followed  up  the  advantage, 
and  in  the  following  year  made  a  treaty  with  the  Goths,  by  which 
the  Danube  became  the  frontier  between  them  and  the  Romans. 
The  latter  gave  up  to  them  the  province  of  Dacia,  lying  north  of 
the  river,  and  withdrew  their  colonists  and  military  garrisons  to 
the  southern  side. 

Both  the  Franks  and  Saxons  profited  by  these  events.  They 
let  their  mutual  hostility  rest  for  a  while,  built  fleets,  and  sailed 
forth  in  the  west  on  voyages  of  plunder,  like  their  relatives,  the 
Goths,  in  the  east.  The  Saxons  descended  on  the  coasts  of  Brit- 
ain and  Gaul;  the  Franks  sailed  to  Spain,  and  are  said  to  have 
even  entered  the  Mediterranean.  When  Probus  became  emperor, 
in  the  year  276,  he  found  a  great  part  of  Gaul  overrun  and  ravaged 
by  them  and  by  the  Alemanni,  on  the  Upper  Rhine.  He  succeeded, 
after  a  hard  struggle,  in  driving  back  the  German  invaders,  re- 
stored the  line  of  stockade  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Danube,  and 
built  new  fortresses  along  the  frontier.  On  the  other  hand,  he  in- 
troduced into  Germany  the  cultivation  of  the  vine,  which  the  pre- 
vious emperors  had  not  permitted,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  famous  vineyards  of  the  Rhine  and  the  Moselle. 

Probus  endeavored  to  weaken  the  power  of  the  Germans  by 
separating  and  colonizing  them,  wherever  it  was  possible.  One 
of  his  experiments,  however,  had  a  very  different  result  from  what 
he  expected.  He  transported  a  large  number  of  Prankish  captives  to 
the  shore  of  the  Black  Sea;  but  instead  of  quietly  settling  there 
they  got  possession  of  some  vessels,  soon  formed  a  large  fleet, 


80  GERMANY 

276-300  A.O. 

sailed  into  the  Mediterranean,  plundered  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor, 
Greece,  and  Sicily,  where  they  even  captured  the  city  of  Syracuse, 
and  at  last,  after  many  losses  and  marvelous  adventures,  made 
their  way  by  sea  to  their  homes  on  the  Lower  Rhine. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  third  century  Constantine,  during  the 
reign  of  his  father,  Constantius,  suppressed  an  insurrection  of  the 
Franks,  and  even  for  a  time  drove  them  from  their  islands  on 
the  coast  of  Holland.  He  afterward  crossed  the  Rhine,  but  found 
it  expedient  not  to  attempt  an  expedition  into  the  interior.  He 
appears  to  have  had  no  war  with  the  Alemanni,  but  he  founded  the 
city  of  Constance,  on  the  lake  of  the  same  name,  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  them  in  check. 

The  boundaries  between  Germany  and  Rome  still  remained 
the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  but  on  the  east  they  were  extended  to 
the  Black  Sea,  and  in  place  of  the  invasions  of  Caesar,  Drusus,  and 
Germanicus,  the  empire  was  obliged  to  be  content  when  it  succeeded 
in  repelling  the  invasions  made  upon  its  own  soil.  Three  hundred 
years  of  very  slow,  but  healthy  growth  on  the  one  side,  and  of 
luxury,  corruption,  and  despotism  on  the  other,  had  thus  changed 
the  relative  position  of  the  two  races. 


Chapter    V 

THE    MIGRATION    OF    THE    GOTHS.     300-412    A.  D. 

ROME,  as  the  representative  of  the  civilization  of  the  world, 
and,  after  the  year  313,  as  the  political  power  which  left 
.  Christianity  free  to  overthrow  the  ancient  religions,  is  still 
the  central  point  of  historical  interest  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  fourth  century.  Until  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Valentinian, 
in  375,  the  ancient  boundaries  of  the  empire,  though  frequently 
broken  down,  were  continually  reestablished,  and  the  laws  and  in- 
stitutions of  the  Romans  had  prevailed  so  long  throughout  the  great 
extent  of  conquered  territory  that  the  inhabitants  now  knew  no 
other. 

But  beyond  the  Danube  had  arisen  a  new  power,  the  inde- 
pendence of  which,  after  the  time  of  Aurelian,  was  never  disputed 
by  the  Roman  emperors.  The  Goths  were  the  first  of  the  Ger- 
manic tribes  to  adopt  a  monarchical  form  of  government  and  to 
acquire  some  degree  of  civilization.  They  were  numerous  and  well 
organized;  and  Constantine,  who  was  more  of  a  diplomatist  than 
a  general,  found  it  better  to  preserve  peace  with  them  for  forty 
years,  by  presents  and  payments,  than  to  provoke  them  to  war. 
From  them  he  secured  his  best  soldiers,  and  it  was  principally  the 
valor  of  his  Gothic  troops  which  enabled  him  to  defeat  the  rival 
emperor,  Licinius,  in  325.  From  that  time  40,000  Goths  formed 
the  main  strength  of  his  army. 

The  important  part  which  these  people  played  in  the  history 
of  Europe  renders  it  necessary  that  we  should  now  sketch  their 
rise  and  growth  as  a  nation.  Soon  after  their  arrival  upon  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea  they  are  found  to  have  developed  into  two 
distinct  nations — East  Goths  and  West  Goths,  separated  by  the 
River  Dniester.  The  Ostrogoths,  under  their  aged  king,  Her- 
manric,  extended,  as  their  name  implies,  eastward  from  the  Dniester 
toward  the  Caspian  Sea ;  on  the  north  they  had  no  fixed  boundary, 
but  they  must  have  reached  to  the  latitude  of  Moscow.  The  Visi- 
goths stretched  westward  from  the  Dniester  to  the  Danube,  and 
northward  from  Hungary  to  the  Baltic  Sea.    Tlie  Vandals  were 

31 


82  GERMANY 

300-360  A.D. 

for  some  generations  allied  with  the  latter,  but  war  having  arisen 
between  them,  the  Emperor  Constantine  interposed.  He  succeeded 
in  effecting  a  separation  of  the  two,  and  in  settling  the  Vandals  in 
Hungary,  where  they  remained  for  forty  years  under  the  protection 
of  the  Roman  Empire. 

From  the  time  of  their  first  encounter  with  the  Romans,  in 
Dacia,  during  the  third  century,  the  Goths  appear  to  have  made 
rapid  advances  in  their  political  organization  and  the  arts  of  civ- 
ilized life.  They  were  the  first  of  the  Germanic  nations  who  ac- 
cepted Christianity.  On  one  of  their  piratical  expeditions  to  the 
shores  of  Asia  Minor  they  brought  away  as  captive  a  Christian 
boy.  They  named  him  Ulfilas,  and  by  that  name  he  is  still  known 
to  the  world.  He  devoted  his  life  to  the  overthrow  of  their  pagan 
faith,  and  succeeded.  From  the  Greek,  Latin,  and  Runic  characters 
of  the  Goths  he  constructed  an  alphabet  for  his  adopted  people,  and 
then  translated  the  Bible  into  their  language.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  he  felt  war  to  be  a  great  check  to  civilization  among  the  Goths, 
and  therefore  in  his  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  he  omitted 
the  Book  of  Kings,  because  it  tells  so  much  of  war  and  bloodshed. 

A  part  of  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament  escaped  destruc- 
tion, and  is  now  preserved  in  the  library  at  Upsala,  in  Sweden.  It 
is  the  only  specimen  in  existence  of  the  Gothic  language  of  that 
early  day.  From  it  we  learn  how  rich  and  refined  was  that  lan- 
guage, and  how  many  of  the  elements  of  the  German  and  Eng- 
lish tongues  it  contained.  The  following  are  the  opening  words  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  as  Ulfilas  wrote  them  between  the  years  350  and 
370  of  our  era : 

Gothic     Atta  unsara,  thu  in   himinam,         veihnai        namo    thein.    guintai 
English.  Father  our,  thou   in   heaven,       be  hallowed     name    thine,    come 
Gebman.   Vater  unser,  du   im  Himmel,  geweiht  werde   Name  dein.     komme 

Gothic  Thiudinassus  Theins.  vairthai  vilja  theins,  sve  in  hitnina,  jah  ana  airthai. 
Encush.  Kingdom       thine,  be  done    will    thine,   as    in    heaven  also  on   earth. 
German.   Herrschaft    dein.  werde      Willedein,  wie  im  Himmel,  audi  auf  Erden. 

Ulfilas  was  bom  in  311,  became  a  bishop  of  the  Christian 
Church,  spent  his  whole  life  in  teaching  the  Goths,  and  died  in  Con- 
stantinople in  the  year  381.  There  was  no  evidence  that  he  or  any 
other  of  the  Christian  missionaries  of  his  time  was  persecuted,  or 
even  seriously  hindered  in  the  good  work,  by  the  Goths ;  the  latter 
seem  to  have  adopted  the  new  faith  readily,  and  the  Arian  creed 


THE     GOTHS  d3 

360-378  A.D. 

which  Ulfilas  taught,  although  rejected  by  the  Church  of  Rome, 
was  held  by  their  descendants  for  nearly  five  hundred  years. 

Somewhere  between  360  and  370  the  long"  peace  between  the 
Romans  and  the  Goths  was  disturbed  by  the  sudden  appearance  on 
the  scene  of  an  entirely  new  race — the  Huns.  They  came  from  the 
steppes  of  Mongolia,  and  belonged  to  the  Tartar  family ;  but  in  the 
course  of  their  wanderings,  before  reaching  Europe,  the  Huns  had 
not  only  lost  all  the  traditions  of  their  former  history,  but  even  their 
religious  faith.  As  they  came  out  of  the  unknown  East,  crossed 
the  Volga,  and  fell  upon  the  Goths,  their  very  appearance  struck 
terror  into  the  Gothic  nation,  who  were  so  much  further  advanced 
in  civilization.  These  new  invading  Huns  were  short,  clumsy  fig- 
ures, with  broad  and  hideously  ugly  faces,  flat  noses,  oblique  eyes, 
and  long  black  hair,  and  were  clothed  in  skins  which  they  wore  until 
they  dropped  in  rags  from  their  bodies.  But  they  were  marvelous 
horsemen,  and  very  skillful  in  using  the  bow  and  lance.  The  men 
were  on  their  horses'  backs  from  morning  till  night,  while  the  women 
and  children  followed  their  march  in  rude  carts.  They  came  in 
such  immense  numbers,  and  showed  so  much  savage  daring  and 
bravery,  that  several  smaller  tribes,  allied  with  the  Ostrogoths,  or 
subject  to  them,  went  over  immediately  to  the  Huns. 

The  kingdom  of  the  Ostrogoths,  almost  without  offering  resist- 
ance, fell  to  pieces.  The  king,  Hermanric,  now  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  old,  threw  himself  upon  his  sword,  at  their  approach; 
his  successor,  Vitimer,  gave  battle,  but  lost  the  victory  and  his  life 
at  the  same  time.  The  great  body  of  the  people  retreated  westward 
before  the  Huns,  who,  following  them,  reached  the  Dnieper.  Here 
Athanaric,  king  of  the  Visigoths,  was  posted  with  a  large  army,  to 
dispute  their  passage ;  but  the  Huns  succeeded  in  finding  a  fording- 
place  which  was  left  unguarded,  turned  his  flank,  and  defeated  him 
with  great  slaughter.  Nothing  now  remained  but  for  both  branches 
of  the  Gothic  people,  united  in  misfortune,  to  retreat  to  the  Danube. 

Athanaric  took  refuge  among  the  mountains  of  Translyvania, 
and  Bishop  Ulfilas  was  dispatched  to  Constantinople  to  ask  the 
assistance  of  the  Emperor  Valens,  who  was  entreated  to  permit  that 
the  Goths,  meanwhile,  might  cross  the  Danube  and  find  a  refuge  on 
Roman  territory.  Valens  yielded  to  the  entreaty,  but  attached  very 
hard  conditions  to  his  permission :  the  Goths  were  allowed  to  cross 
unarmed,  after  giving  up  their  wives  and  children  as  hostages.  In 
their  fear  of  the  Huns  they  were  obliged  to  accept  these  conditions. 


S4  GERMANY 

378-394    A.D. 

and  hundreds  of  thousands  thronged  across  the  Danube.  They 
soon  exhausted  the  supplies  of  the  region,  and  then  began  to  suffer 
famine,  of  which  the  Roman  officers  and  traders  took  advantage, 
demanding  their  children  as  slaves,  in  return  for  the  cats  and  dogs 
which  they  gave  to  the  Goths  as  food. 

This  treatment  brought  about  its  own  revenge.  Driven  to 
desperation  by  hunger  and  the  outrages  inflicted  upon  them,  the 
Goths  secretly  procured  arms,  rose,  and  made  themselves  masters 
of  the  country.  The  Roman  governor  marched  against  them,  but 
their  chief,  Fridigern,  defeated  him  and  utterly  destroyed  his  army. 
The  news  of  this  event  induced  large  numbers  of  Gothic  soldiers 
to  desert  from  the  imperial  army  and  join  their  countrymen.  Fridi- 
gern, thus  strengthened,  commenced  a  war  of  revenge:  he  crossed 
the  Balkans,  laid  waste  Thrace,  Macedonia,  and  Thessaly,  and  set- 
tled his  own  people  in  the  most  fertile  parts  of  the  plundered 
provinces.  But  he  was  unable  to  take  the  fortified  Roman  cities, 
like  Adrianople. 

Meanwhile,  by  378,  the  Emperor  Valens  had  raised  a  large 
army  and  marched  against  Fridigern.  Without  waiting  for  rein- 
forcements which  were  on  their  way  from  Rome,  Valens  unwisely 
decided  to  risk  an  open  battle  with  the  Goths  before  the  walls  of 
Adrianople.  In  this  fatal  battle  of  Adrianople  the  Roman  army 
was  not  merely  defeated,  but  literally  annihilated,  and  the  emperor 
himself  perished  in  an  attempt  at  flight.  His  nephew,  Gratian, 
succeeded  to  the  throne,  but  associated  with  him  Theodosius,  a 
young  Spaniard  of  great  ability,  as  Emperor  of  the  East.  While 
Gratian  marched  to  Gaul,  to  stay  the  increasing  inroads  of  the 
Franks,  Theodosius  was  left  to  deal  with  the  Goths,  who  were  begin- 
ning to  cultivate  the  fields  of  Thrace,  as  if  they  meant  to  stay  there. 

He  was  obliged  to  confirm  them  in  the  possession  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  country.  They  were  called  allies  of  the  empire,  were 
obliged  to  furnish  a  certain  number  of  soldiers,  but  retained  their 
own  kings,  and  were  governed  by  their  own  laws.  For  several 
years  the  relations  between  the  two  powers  continued  peaceful  and 
friendly. 

In  Italy,  Valentinian  II.  succeeded  his  brother  Gratian.  His 
chief  minister  was  a  Frank,  named  Arbogast,  who,  learning  that  he 
was  to  be  dismissed  from  his  place,  had  the  young  Valentinian  assas- 
sinated, and  set  up  a  new  emperor,  Eugene,  in  his  stead.  This  act 
brought  him  into  direct  conflict  with  Theodosius.    Arbogast  called 


THEGOTHS  86 

394-408  A.D. 

Upon  his  countrymen,  the  Franks,  who  sent  a  large  body  of  troops 
to  his  assistance,  while  Theodosius  strengthened  his  army  with 
20,000  Grothic  soldiers.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  Frank  and  Goth — 
West-German  and  East-German — faced  each  other  as  enemies.  The 
Gothic  auxiliaries  of  Theodosius  were  commanded  by  two  leaders, 
Alaric  and  Stilicho,  already  distinguished  among  their  people,  and 
destined  to  play  a  remarkable  part  in  the  history  of  Europe.  The 
battle  between  the  two  armies  was  fought  near  Aquileia,  in  the  year 
394.  The  sham  emperor,  Eugene,  was  captured  and  beheaded, 
Arbogast  threw  himself  upon  his  sword,  and  Theodosius  was  master 
of  the  West. 

The  emperor,  however,  lived  but  a  few  months  to  enjoy  his. 
single  rule.  He  died  at  Milan,  in  395,  after  having  divided  the 
government  of  the  empire  between  his  two  sons,  Honorius,  the 
elder,  was  sent  to  Rome,  with  the  Gothic  chieftain,  Stilicho,  as  his 
minister  and  guardian;  while  the  boy  Arcadius,  at  Constantinople, 
was  intrusted  to  the  care  of  a  Gaul,  named  Rufinus.  Alaric,  perhaps 
a  personal  enemy  of  the  latter,  perhaps  jealous  of  the  elevation  of 
Stilicho  to  such  an  important  place,  refused  to  submit  to  the  new 
government.  He  collected  a  large  body  of  his  countrymen  and 
set  out  on  a  campaign  of  plunder  through  Greece.  Every  ancient 
city,  except  Thebes,  fell  into  his  hands,  and  only  Athens  was  allowed 
to  buy  her  exemption  from  pillage. 

The  Gaul,  Rufinus,  took  no  steps  to  arrest  this  devastation; 
wherefore,  it  is  said,  he  was  murdered  at  the  instigation  of  Stilicho, 
who  then  sent  a  fleet  against  Alaric.  This  undertaking  was  not 
entirely  successful,  and  the  government  of  Constantinople  finally 
purchased  peace  by  making  Alaric  the  imperial  legate  in  Illyria.  In 
the  year  402  he  was  sent  to  Italy,  as  the  representative  of  the  Em- 
peror Arcadius,  to  overthrow  the  power  of  his  former  fellow-chief- 
tain, Stilicho,  who  ruled  in  the  name  of  Honorius.  His  approach, 
with  a  large  army,  threw  the  whole  country  into  terror.  Honorius 
shut  himself  up  within  the  walls  of  Ravenna,  while  Stilicho  called 
the  legions  from  Gaul,  and  even  from  Britain,  to  his  support.  A 
great  battle  was  fought  between  the  rivals  at  Pollentia,  in  which 
Alaric  was  worsted ;  he  and  his  Visigothic  followers  were  glad  to  be 
allowed  to  return  to  Illyria  with  all  the  booty  they  had  gathered  in 
Italy. 

Five  years  afterward,  when  Stilicho  was  busy  endeavoring  to 
keep  the  Franks  and  Alemanni  out  of  Gaul,  and  to  drive  back  the 


36  GERMANY 

408-410  A.D. 

incursions  of  mixed  German  and  Celtic  bands  which  began  to 
descend  from  the  Alps,  Alaric  again  made  his  appearance,  demand- 
ing the  payment  of  certain  sums  which  he  claimed  were  due  to  him. 
Stilicho,  having  need  of  his  military  strength  elsewhere,  satisfied 
Alaric's  claim  by  the  payment  of  4CXXd  pounds  of  gold;  but  the 
Romans  felt  themselves  bitterly  humiliated,  and  Honorius,  listening 
to  the  rivals  of  Stilicho,  gave  his  consent  to  the  assassination  of  the 
latter  and  his  whole  family,  including  the  emperor's  own  sister, 
Serena,  whom  Stilicho  had  married. 

When  the  news  of  this  atrocious  act  reached  Alaric,  he  turned 
and  marched  back  to  Italy.  There  was  now  no  skillful  commander 
to  oppose  him ;  the  cowardly  Honorius  took  refuge  in  Ravenna,  and 
the  Visigoths  advanced  without  resistance  to  the  gates  of  Rome. 
The  walls,  built  by  Aurelian,  were  too  strong  to  be  taken  by  assault, 
but  all  supplies  were  cut  off,  and  the  final  surrender  of  the  city  be- 
came only  a  question  of  time.  When  a  deputation  of  Romans 
represented  to  Alaric  that  the  people  still  numbered  half  a  million, 
he  answered:  "The  thicker  the  grass,  the  better  the  mowing!" 
They  were  finally  obliged  to  yield  to  his  demands,  and  pay  a  ransom 
consisting  of  5000  pounds  of  gold,  30,000  pounds  of  silver,  many 
thousands  of  silk  robes,  and  a  large  quantity  of  spices — a  total  value 
of  something  more  than  three  millions  of  dollars.  In  addition  to 
this,  40,000  slaves,  mostly  of  Germanic  blood,  escaped  to  his  camp 
and  became  free. 

Alaric  only  withdrew  into  northern  Italy,  where  he  soon  found 
a  new  cause  of  dispute  with  the  government  of  Honorius,  in  Ra- 
venna. He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  great  military  genius,  but 
little  capacity  for  civil  rule;  of  much  energy  and  ambition,  but  little 
judgment.  The  result  of  his  quarrel  with  Honorius  was  that  he 
marched  again  to  Rome,  proclaimed  Attalus.  the  governor  of  the 
city,  emperor,  and  then  demanded  entrance  for  himself  and  his 
troops,  as  an  ally.  The  demand  could  not  be  refused;  Rome  was 
opened  to  the  Visigoths,  who  participated  in  the  festivals  which  ac- 
companied the  coronation  of  Attains.  It  was  nothing  but  a  farce, 
and  seems  to  have  been  partly  intended  as  such  by  Alaric,  who  pub- 
licly deposed  the  new  emperor  shortly  afterward. 

There  were  further  negotiations  with  Honorius,  which  came  to 
nothing;  then  Alaric  advanced  upon  Rome  the  third  time,  not  now 
as  an  ally,  but  as  an  avowed  enemy.  The  city  could  make  no  resist- 
ance, and  on  August  24,  410,  Alaric  and  his  followers  entered 


THEGOTHS  S7 

410-412  A.D. 

it  as  conquerors.  This  event,  so  famous  in  history,  has  been 
greatly  misrepresented.  Later  researches  show  that,  although  the 
citizens  were  despoiled  of  their  wealth,  the  buildings  and  monuments 
were  spared.  The  people  were  subjected  to  violence  and  outrage 
for  the  space  of  six  days,  after  which  Alaric  marched  out  of  Rome 
with  his  army,  leaving  the  city,  in  its  external  appearance,  very 
much  as  he  found  it. 

He  directed  his  course  toward  southern  Italy,  with  the  inten- 
tion, it  was  generally  believed,  of  conquering  Sicily  and  then  cross- 
ing into  Africa.  The  plan  was  defeated  by  his  death,  in  411,  at 
Cosenza,  a  town  on  the  banks  of  the  Busento,  in  Calabria.  His 
soldiers  turned  the  river  from  its  course,  dug  a  grave  in  its  bed,  and 
there  laid  the  body  of  Alaric,  with  all  the  gems  and  gold  he  had 
gathered.  Then  the  Busento  was  restored  to  its  channel,  and  the 
slaves  who  had  performed  the  work  were  slain,  in  order  that  Alaric's 
place  of  burial  might  never  be  known. 

His  brother-in-law,  Ataulf  (Adolph),  was  his  successor.  He 
was  also  the  brother-in-law  of  Honorius,  having  married  the  latter's 
sister,  Placidia,  after  she  was  taken  captive  by  Alaric.  He  was 
therefore  strengthened  by  the  conquests  of  the  one  and  by  his  family 
connection  with  the  other.  The  Visigoths,  who  had  gradually 
gathered  together  under  Alaric,  seem  to  have  had  enough  of  march- 
ing to  and  fro,  and  they  acquiesced  in  an  arrangement  made  between 
Ataulf  and  Honorius,  according  to  which  the  former  led  them  out 
of  Italy  in  412,  and  established  them  in  southern  Gaul.  They  took 
possession  of  all  the  region  lying  between  the  Loire  and  the  Pyre- 
nees, with  Toulouse  as  their  capital. 

Thus,  in  the  space  of  forty  years,  the  Visigoths  left  their  home 
on  the  Black  Sea,  between  the  Danube  and  the  Dniester,  passed 
through  the  whole  breadth  of  the  Roman  Empire,  from  Constanti- 
nople to  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  after  having  traversed  both  the  Grecian 
and  Italian  peninsulas,  and  settled  themselves  again  in  what  seemed 
to  be  a  permanent  home.  During  this  extraordinary  migration 
they  maintained  their  independence  as  a  people,  they  preserved  their 
laws,  customs,  and  their  own  rulers;  and,  although  frequently  at 
enmity  with  the  empire,  they  were  never  made  to  yield  it  allegiance. 
But  the  impetus  given  to  this  branch  of  the  Germanic  race  by  the 
invasion  of  the  Huns  did  not  affect  it  alone.  Before  the  Visigoths 
reached  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  all  central  Europe  was  in  move- 
ment. 


Chapter  VI 

THE   INVASION  OF  THE   HUNS.    412-472   A.  D. 

THE  westward  movement  of  the  Huns  was  followed,  soon 
afterward,  by  an  advance  of  the  Slavonic  tribes  on  the 
north,  who  first  took  possession  of  the  territory  on  the 
Baltic  relinquished  by  the  Goths,  and  then  gradually  pressed  onward 
toward  the  Elbe.  The  Huns  themselves,  temporarily  settled  in  the 
fertile  region  north  of  the  Danube,  pushed  the  Vandals  westward 
toward  Bohemia,  and  the  latter,  in  their  turn,  pressed  upon  the 
Marcomanni.  Thus,  at  the  opening  of  the  fifth  century,  all  the 
tribes  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Alps,  along  the  eastern  frontier  of 
Germany,  were  partly  or  wholly  forced  to  fall  back.  This  gave 
rise  to  a  union  of  many  of  them,  including  the  Vandals,  Alans, 
Suevi,  and  Burgiindians,  under  a  chief  named  Radagast.  Number- 
ing half  a  million,  they  crossed  the  Alps  into  northern  Italy  and 
demanded  territory  for  new  homes. 

Stilicho,  exhausted  by  his  struggle  with  Alaric,  whose  retreat 
from  Italy  he  had  just  purchased,  could  only  meet  this  new  enemy 
by  summoning  his  legions  from  Gaul  and  Britain.  He  met  Rada- 
gast at  Fiesole  (near  Florence),  and  so  crippled  the  strength  of  the 
invasion  that  Italy  was  saved.  The  German  tribes  recrossed  the 
Alps  and  entered  Gaul  the  following  year.  Here  they  gave  up  their 
temporary  union,  and  each  tribe  selected  its  own  territory.  The 
Alans  pushed  forward,  crossed  the  Pyrenees,  and  finally  settled  in 
Portugal ;  the  Vandals  followed  and  took  possession  of  all  southern 
Spain,  giving  their  name  to  (V)-Andalusia;  the  Suevi,  after  fight- 
ing, but  not  conquering,  the  native  Basque  tribes  of  the  Pyrenees, 
selected  what  is  now  the  province  of  Galicia ;  while  the  Burgundians 
stretched  from  the  Rhine  through  western  Switzerland,  and  south- 
ward nearly  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rhone.  The  greater  part  of  Gaul 
was  thus  already  lost  to  the  Roman  power. 

The  withdrawal  of  the  legions  from  Britain  by  Stilicho  left  the 
population  unprotected.  The  Britons  had  become  greatly  demoral- 
ized during  the  long  decay  of  the  empire,  were  unable  to  resist  the 

38 


THE     HUNS  89 

429-449   A.D. 

invasions  of  the  Picts  and  Scots,  and  in  this  emergency  summoned 
the  Saxons  and  Angles  to  their  aid.  Two  chiefs  of  the  latter,  Hen- 
gist  and  Horsa,  accepted  the  invitation,  landed  in  England  in  449, 
and  received  lands  in  Kent.  They  were  followed  by  such  numbers 
of  their  German  countrymen,  who  were  feeling  the  pressure  in  their 
rear  of  the  advancing  Huns,  that  they  soon  conquered  the  Britons 
in  southern  and  eastern  England,  and  took  the  land  for  themselves 
and  their  families.  They  brought  with  them  their  speech  and  their 
ancient  pagan  religion,  and  for  a  time  overthrew  the  rude  form  of 
Christianity  which  had  prevailed  among  the  Britons  since  the  days 
of  Constantine.  Only  Ireland,  the  Scottish  Highlands,  Wales,  and 
Cornwall  resisted  the  Saxon  rule,  as,  across  the  Channel,  in  Brittany, 
a  remnant  of  the  Celtic  Gauls  resisted  the  sway  of  the  Franks. 
From  the  year  449  until  the  landing  of  William  the  Conqueror,  in 
1066,  nearly  all  England  and  the  Lowlands  of  Scotland  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  Saxon  race. 

Ataulf,  the  king  of  the  Visigoths,  was  murdered  soon  after 
establishing  his  people  in  southern  France.  Wallia,  his  successor, 
crossed  the  Pyrenees,  drove  the  Vandals  out  of  northern  Spain,  and 
made  the  Ebro  River  the  boundary  between  them  and  his  Visigoths. 
Fifteen  years  afterward,  in  429,  the  Vandals,  under  their  famous 
king,  Geiseric  or  Genseric,  were  invited  by  the  Roman  governor  of 
Africa  to  assist  him  in  a  revolt  against  the  empire.  They  crossed 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  in  a  body,  took  possession  of  all  the  Roman 
provinces  as  far  eastward  as  Tunis,  and  made  Carthage  the  capital 
of  their  new  kingdom.  The  Visigoths  immediately  occupied  the 
remainder  of  Spain,  which  they  held  for  nearly  three  hundred  years 
afterward. 

Thus,  although  the  name  and  state  of  an  emperor  of  the  West 
were  kept  up  in  Rome  until  the  year  476,  the  empire  never  really 
existed  after  the  invasion  of  Alaric.  The  dominion  over  Italy, 
Gaul,  and  Spain,  claimed  by  the  emperors  of  the  East,  at  Constanti- 
nople, was  acknowledged  in  documents,  but  (except  for  a  short  time, 
under  Justinian)  was  never  practically  exercised.  Rome  had  been 
the  supreme  power  of  the  known  world  for  so  many  centuries  that 
a  superstitious  influence  still  clung  to  the  very  name,  and  the  ambi- 
tion of  the  Germanic  kings  seems  to  have  been,  not  to  destroy  the 
empire,  but  to  conquer  and  make  it  their  own. 

The  rude  tribes  which  in  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar  were  buried 
among  the  mountains  and  forests  of  the  country  between  the  Rhine, 


40  GERMANY 

428-449   A.D. 

the  Danube,  and  the  Baltic  Sea,  were  now,  five  hundred  years  later, 
scattered  over  all  Europe,  and  beginning  to  establish  new  nations 
on  the  foundations  laid  by  Rome.  As  soon  as  they  cross  the  old 
boundaries  of  Germany  they  come  into  the  light  of  history,  and  we 
are  able  to  follow  their  wars  and  migrations ;  but  we  know  scarcely 
anything,  during  this  period,  of  the  tribes  which  remained  within 
those  boundaries.  We  can  only  infer  that  the  Marcomanni  settled 
between  the  Danube  and  the  Alps,  in  what  is  now  Bavaria ;  that  early 
in  the  fifth  century  the  Thuringians  established  a  kingdom  including 
nearly  all  central  Germany;  and  that  the  Slavonic  tribes,  pressing 
westward  through  Prussia,  were  checked  by  the  valor  of  the  Saxons, 
along  the  line  of  the  Elbe,  since  only  scattered  bands  of  them  were 
found  beyond  that  river  at  a  later  day. 

The  first  impulse  to  all  these  great  migrations  came,  as  we  have 
seen,  from  the  Huns.  These  people,  as  yet  unconquered,  were  so 
dreaded  by  the  emperors  of  the  East  that  their  peace  was  purchased, 
like  that  of  the  Goths  a  hundred  years  before,  by  large  annual  pay- 
ments. For  fifty  years  they  seemed  satisfied  to  rest  in  their  new 
home,  making  occasional  raids  across  the  Danube,  and  gradually 
bringing  under  their  sway  the  fragments  of  Germanic  tribes  already 
settled  in  Hungary  or  left  behind  by  the  Goths.  In  428  Attila  and 
his  brother  Bleda  became  kings  of  the  Huns,  but  the  latter's  death, 
in  445,  left  Attila  sole  ruler.  His  name  was  already  famous,  far 
and  wide,  for  his  strength,  energy,  and  intelligence.  His  capital 
was  established  near  Tokay,  in  Hungary,  where  he  lived  in  a  great 
castle  of  wood,  surrounded  with  moats  and  palisades.  He  was  a 
man  of  short  stature,  with  broad  head,  neck  and  shoulders,  and 
fierce,  restless  eyes.  He  scorned  the  luxury  which  was  prevalent 
at  the  time,  wore  only  plain  woolen  garments,  and  ate  and  drank 
from  wooden  dishes  and  cups.  His  personal  power  and  influence 
were  so  great  that  the  Huns  looked  upon  him  as  a  demigod,  while 
all  the  neighboring  Germanic  tribes,  including  a  large  portion  of 
the  Ostrogoths,  enlisted  under  his  banner. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  year  449  Attila  made  preparations  for 
a  grand  war  of  conquest.  He  already  possessed  unbounded  influ- 
ence over  the  Huns,  and  supernatural  sig^s  of  his  coming  career 
were  soon  supplied.  A  peasant  dug  up  a  jeweled  sword,  which,  it 
is  said,  had  long  before  been  given  to  a  race  of  kings  by  the  god  of 
war.  This  was  brought  to  Attila,  and  thenceforth  worn  by  him. 
He  was  called  "  The  Scourge  of  God,"  and  the  people  believed  that 


THEHUNS  41 

449-451    A.D. 

wherever  the  hoofs  of  his  horse  had  trodden  no  grass  ever  grew 
again.  Tlie  fear  of  his  power,  or  the  hope  of  plunder,  drew  large 
numbers  of  the  German  tribes  to  his  side,  and  the  army  with  which 
he  set  out  for  the  conquest,  first  of  Gaul  and  then  of  Europe,  is  esti- 
mated at  from  500,000  to  700,000  warriors.  With  this  he  passed 
through  the  heart  of  Germany,  much  of  which  he  had  already  made 
tributary,  and  reached  the  Rhine,  Here  Gunther,  the  king  of  the 
Burgundians,  opposed  him  with  a  force  of  10,000  men,  and  was 
speedily  crushed.  Even  a  portion  of  the  Franks,  who  were  then 
quarreling  among  themselves,  joined  him,  and  now  Gaul,  divided 
between  Franks,  Romans,  and  Visigoths,  was  open  to  his  advance. 

The  minister  and  counselor  of  Valentinian  III.,  the  grandson 
of  Theodosius  and  emperor  of  the  West,  was  Aetius,  the  son  of  a 
Gothic  father  and  a  Roman  mother.  As  soon  as  Attila's  design 
became  known  he  hastened  to  Gaul,  collected  the  troops  still  in 
Roman  service,  and  procured  the  alliance  of  Theodoric  and  the 
Visigoths.  The  Alans,  under  their  king,  Sangipan,  were  also  per- 
suaded to  unite  their  forces;  the  independent  Celts  in  Brittany  and 
a  large  proportion  of  the  Franks  and  Burgundians,  all  of  whom 
were  threatened  by  the  invasion  of  the  Huns,  hastened  to  the  side 
of  Aetius,  so  that  the  army  commanded  by  himself  and  Theodoric 
became  nearly  if  not  quite  equal  in  numbers  to  that  of  Attila.  The 
latter,  by  this  time,  had  marched  into  the  heart  of  Gaul,  laying  waste 
the  country  through  which  he  passed,  and  meeting  no  resistance 
until  he  reached  the  walled  and  fortified  city  of  Orleans.  This  was 
in  the  year  451. 

Orleans,  besieged  and  hard  pressed,  was  about  to  surrender, 
when  Aetius  approached  with  his  army.  Attila  was  obliged  to 
raise  the  siege  at  once,  and  retreat  in  order  to  select  a  better  posi- 
tion for  the  impending  battle.  He  finally  halted  on  the  broad  plains 
of  the  province  of  Champagne,  near  the  present  city  of  Chalons, 
where  his  immense  body  of  armed  horsemen  would  have  ample 
space  to  move.  Aetius  and  Theodoric  followed  and  pitched  theif 
camp  opposite  to  him,  on  the  other  side  of  a  small  hill  which  rose 
from  the  plain.  That  night  Attila  ordered  his  priests  to  consult 
their  pagan  oracles,  and  ascertain  the  fate  of  the  morrow's  struggle. 
The  answer  was :  "  Death  to  the  enemy's  leader,  destruction  to  the 
Huns !  "  but  the  hope  of  seeing  Aetius  fall  prevailed  on  Attila  to  risk 
his  own  defeat. 

The  next  day  witnessed  one  of  the  greatest  battles  of  history. 


42  GERMANY 

451-452   A.D. 

Aetius  commanded  the  right  and  Theodoric  the  left  wing  of  their 
army,  placing  between  them  the  Alans  and  other  tribes,  of  whose 
fidelity  they  were  not  quite  sure.  Attila,  however,  took  the  center 
with  his  Huns,  and  formed  his  wings  of  the  Germans  and  Ostro- 
goths. The  battle  began  at  dawn,  and  raged  through  the  whole  day. 
Both  armies  endeavored  to  take  and  hold  the  hill  between  them, 
and  the  hundreds  of  thousands  rolled  back  and  forth,  as  the  victory 
inclined  to  one  side  or  the  other.  A  brook  in  the  plain  ran  red 
with  the  blood  of  the  fallen.  At  last  Theodoric  broke  Attila's  cen- 
ter, but  was  slain  in  the  attack.  The  Visigoths  immediately  lifted 
his  son,  Thorismond,  on  a  shield,  proclaimed  him  king,  and  renewed 
the  fight.  The  Huns  were  driven  back  to  the  fortress  of  wagons, 
where  their  wives,  children,  and  treasures  were  collected,  when  a 
terrible  storm  of  rain  and  thunder  put  an  end  to  the  battle.  Between 
200,000  and  300,000  dead  lay  upon  the  plain. 

All  night  the  lamentations  of  the  Hunnish  women  filled  the  air. 
Attila  had  an  immense  funeral  pile  constructed  of  saddles,  whereon 
he  meant  to  burn  himself  and  his  family,  in  case  Aetius  should  renew 
the  fight  the  next  day.  But  the  army  of  the  latter  was  too  exhausted 
to  move,  and  the  Huns  were  allowed  to  commence  their  retreat  from 
Gaul.  Enraged  at  his  terrible  defeat,  Attila  destroyed  everything 
in  his  way,  leaving  a  broad  track  of  blood  and  ashes  from  Gaul 
through  the  heart  of  Germany,  back  to  Hungary. 

By  the  following  year,  452,  Attila  had  collected  another  army, 
and  now  directed  his  march  toward  Italy.  This  new  invasion  was 
so  unexpected  that  the  passes  of  the  Alps  were  left  undefended,  and 
the  Huns  reached  the  rich  and  populous  city  of  Aquileia,  on  the 
northern  shore  of  the  Adriatic,  without  meeting  any  opposition. 
After  a  siege  of  three  montlis  they  took  and  razed  it  to  the  ground 
so  completely  that  it  was  never  rebuilt,  and  from  that  day  to  this 
only  a  few  piles  of  shapeless  stones  remain  to  mark  the  spot  where 
it  stood.  The  inhabitants  who  escaped  took  refuge  upon  the  low 
marshy  islands,  separated  from  the  mainland  by  the  lagoons,  and 
there  formed  the  settlement  which,  two  or  three  hundred  years  later, 
became  known  to  the  world  as  Venice. 

Attila  marched  onward  to  the  Po,  destroying  everything  in  his 
way.  Here  he  was  met  by  a  deputation,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
Leo,  the  Bishop  (or  Pope)  of  Rome,  sent  by  Valentinian  HI.  Leo 
so  worked  upon  the  superstitious  mind  of  the  savage  monarch  that 
the  latter  gave  up  his  purpose  of  taking  Rome  and  returned  to  Hun- 


THE     HUNS  48 

452-472   A.D. 

gary  with  his  army,  which  was  suffering  from  disease  and  want. 
The  next  year  he  died  suddenly,  in  his  wooden  palace  at  Tokay. 
The  tradition  states  that  his  body  was  enclosed  in  three  coffins,  of 
iron,  silver,  and  gold,  and  buried  secretly,  like  that  of  Alaric,  so  that 
no  man  might  know  his  resting  place.  He  had  a  great  many  wives, 
and  left  so  many  sons  behind  him  that  their  quarrels  for  the  succes- 
sion to  the  throne  divided  the  Huns  into  numerous  parties  and  quite 
destroyed  their  power  as  a  people. 

The  alliance  between  Aetius  and  the  Visigoths  ceased  immedi- 
ately after  the  great  battle,  Valentinian  HI.,  suspicious  of  the 
fame  of  Aetius,  recalled  him  to  Rome,  the  year  after  Attila's  death, 
and  assassinated  him  with  his  own  hand.  The  treacherous  emperor 
was  himself  slain,  shortly  afterward,  by  Maximus,  who  succeeded 
him,  and  forced  his  widow,  the  Empress  Eudoxia,  to  accept  him  as 
her  husband.  Out  of  revenge,  Eudoxia  sent  a  messenger  to  Gei- 
seric,  the  old  king  of  the  Vandals,  at  Carthage,  summoning  him  to 
Rome.  The  Vandals  had  already  built  a  large  fleet  and  pillaged  the 
shores  of  Sicily  and  other  Mediterranean  islands.  In  455  Geiseric 
landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber  with  a  powerful  force,  and  marched 
upon  Rome.  The  city  was  not  strong  enough  to  offer  any  resistr 
ance ;  it  was  taken,  and  during  two  weeks  surrendered  ta  such  devas- 
tation and  outrage  that  the  word  vandalism  has  ever  since  been  used 
to  express  savage  and  wanton  destruction.  The  churches  were 
plundered  of  all  their  vessels  and  ornaments,  the  old  palace  of  the 
Caesars  was  laid  waste,  priceless  works  of  art  destroyed,  and  those 
of  the  inhabitants  who  escaped  with  their  lives  were  left  almost 
as  beggars. 

When  "  the  old  king  of  the  sea,"  as  Geiseric  was  called,  returned 
to  Africa,  he  not  only  left  Rome  ruined,  but  the  Western  Empire 
practically  overthrown.  For  seventeen  years  afterward  Ricimer, 
a  chief  of  the  Suevi,  who  had  been  commander  of  the  Roman  auxil- 
iaries in  Gaul,  was  the  real  ruler  of  its  crumbling  fragments.  He 
set  up,  set  aside,  or  slew  five  or  six  so-called  emperors  at  his  own 
will,  and  finally  died  in  472,  only  four  years  before  the  boy,  Romulus 
Augustulus,  was  compelled  to  throw  off  the  purple  and  retire  into 
obscurity  as  "  the  last  emperor  of  Rome." 

In  455,  the  year  when  Geiseric  and  his  Vandals  plundered 
Rome,  the  Germanic  tribes  along  the  Danube  took  advantage  of  the 
dissensions  following  Attila's  death  and  threw  off  their  allegiance 
to  the  Huns.     They  all  united  under  a  king  named  Ardaric,  gave 


44  GERMANY 

455-472   A.D. 

battle,  and  were  so  successful  that  the  whole  tribe  of  the  Huns  was 
forced  to  retreat  eastward  into  southern  Russia.  From  this  time 
they  do  not  appear  again  in  history,  although  it  is  probable  that  the 
Magyars,  who  came  later  into  the  same  region  from  which  they  were 
driven,  brought  the  remnants  of  the  tribe  with  them. 

During  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  the  great  historic  achieve- 
ments of  the  German  race,  as  we  have  now  traced  them,  were  per- 
formed outside  of  the  German  territory.  While  from  Thrace  to 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  from  the  Scottish  Highlands  to  Africa,  the  new 
nationalities  overran  the  decayed  Roman  Empire,  constantly  chang- 
ing their  seats  of  power,  we  have  no  intelligence  of  what  was  hap- 
pening within  Germany  herself.  Both  branches  of  the  Goths,  the 
Vandals,  and  a  part  of  the  Franks  had  become  Christians;  but  the 
Alemanni,  Saxons,  and  Thuringinians  were  still  heathens,  although 
they  had  by  this  time  adopted  many  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 
They  had  no  educated  class  corresponding  to  the  Christian  priest- 
hood in  the  East,  Italy,  and  Gaul,  and  even  in  Britain ;  and  thus  no 
chronicle  of  their  history  has  survived. 


Chapter   VII 

THE  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  OSTROGOTHS 
472-570    A.  D. 

j4  FTER  the  death  of  Ricimer,  in  472,  Italy,  weakened  by 
LJL  invasion  and  internal  dissension,  was  an  easy  prey  to  the 
JL  ^  first  strong  hand  which  might  claim  possession.  Such  a 
hand  was  soon  found  in  a  chief  named  Odoacer  (or  Odovakar). 
He  commanded  a  large  force  composed  of  the  smaller  German 
tribes  from  the  banks  of  the  Danube  who  had  thrown  off  the  yoke 
of  the  Huns.  Many  of  these  troops  had  served  the  last  half  dozen 
Roman  emperors  whom  Ricimer  had  set  up  or  thrown  down,  and 
they  now  claimed  one-third  of  the  Italian  territory  for  themselves 
and  their  families.  When  this  was  refused,  Odoacer,  at  their  head, 
took  the  boy  Romulus  Augustulus  prisoner,  banished  him,  and  pro- 
claimed himself  king  of  Italy,  in  476,  making  Ravenna  his  capital. 

The  dynasty  at  Constantinople  still  called  its  dominion  "  The 
Roman  Empire,"  and  claimed  authority  over  all  the  West.  But  it 
had  not  the  means  to  make  its  claim  acknowledged,  and  in  this 
emergency  the  Emperor  Zeno  turned  to  Theodoric,  the  young  king 
of  the  Ostrogoths,  who  had  been  brought  up  at  his  court,  in  Con- 
stantinople. He  was  the  successor  of  three  brothers,  who,  after 
the  dispersion  of  the  Huns,  had  united  some  of  the  smaller  German 
tribes  with  the  Ostrogoths  and  restored  the  former  power  and  influ- 
ence of  the  race. 

Theodoric  (who  must  not  be  confounded  with  his  namesake, 
the  Visigoth  king  who  fell  in  conquering  Attila)  was  a  man  of 
great  natural  ability,  which  had  been  well  developed  by  his  education 
in  Constantinople.  He  accepted  the  appointment  of  general  and  gov- 
ernor from  the  emperor,  yet  the  preparations  he  made  for  the  expe- 
dition to  Italy  show  that  he  intended  to  remain  and  establisih  his 
own  kingdom  there.  It  was  not  a  military  march,  but  the  migra- 
tion of  a  people,  which  he  headed.  The  Ostrogoths  and  their  allies 
took  with  them  their  wives  and  children,  their  herds  and  household 
goods;  they  moved  so  slowly,  up  the  Danube  and  across  the  Alps, 

46 


46  GERMANY 

476-496 

now  halting  to  rest  and  recruit,  now  fighting  a  passage  through 
some  hostile  tribe,  that  several  years  elapsed  before  they  reached 
Italy. 

Odoacer  had  reigned  fourteen  years,  with  more  justice  and 
discretion  than  was  common  in  those  times,  and  was  able  to  raise  a 
large  force,  in  489,  to  meet  the  advance  of  Theodoric.  After  three 
severe  battles  had  been  fought,  he  was  forced  to  take  shelter  within 
the  strong  walls  of  Ravenna;  but  he  ag^in  sallied  forth  and  attacked 
the  Ostrogoths  with  such  bravery  that  he  came  near  defeating  them. 
Finally,  in  493,  after  a  siege  of  three  years,  he  capitulated,  and  was 
soon  afterward  treacherously  murdered,  by  order  of  Theodoric,  at 
a  banquet  to  which  the  latter  had  invited  him. 

Having  the  power  in  his  own  hands,  Theodoric  now  threw  off 
his  assumed  subjection  to  the  Eastern  Empire,  put  on  the  Roman 
purple  and  proclaimed  himself  king.  All  Italy,  including  Sicily, 
Sardinia,  and  Corsica,  fell  at  once  into  his  hands;  and,  having  left 
a  portion  of  the  Ostrogoths  behind  him,  on  the  Danube,  he  also 
claimed  all  the  region  between,  in  order  to  preserve  a  communica- 
tion with  them.  He  was  soon  so  strongly  settled  in  his  new  realm 
that  he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the  Emperor  Zeno  and  his  suc- 
cessors. The  latter  did  not  venture  to  show  any  direct  signs  of 
hostility  toward  him,  but  remained  quiet ;  while,  on  his  part,  beyond 
seizing  a  portion  of  Pannonia,  he  refrained  from  interfering  with 
their  rule  in  the  East. 

In  the  West,  however,  the  case  was  different.  Five  years 
before  Theodoric's  arrival  in  Italy  the  last  relic  of  Roman  power 
disappeared  forever  from  Gaul.  A  general  named  Syagrius  had 
succeeded  to  the  command,  after  the  murder  of  Aetius,  and  had 
formed  the  central  provinces  into  a  Roman  state,  which  was  so  com- 
pletely cut  off  from  all  connection  with  the  empire  that  it  became 
practically  independent.  The  Franks,  who  now  held  all  northern 
Gaul  and  Belgium,  were  by  this  time  so  strong  and  well  organized 
that  their  king,  Clovis  (or  Chlodoweg),  boldly  challenged  Syagrius 
to  battle.  The  challenge  was  accepted:  a  battle  was  fought  near 
Soissons,  in  the  year  486,  the  Romans  were  cut  to  pieces,  and  the 
River  Loire  became  the  southern  boundary  of  the  Prankish  king- 
dom and  the  city  of  Paris  its  capital.  The  territory  between  the 
Loire  and  the  Pyrenees  still  belonged  to  the  Visigoths. 

While  Theodoric  was  engaged  in  giving  peace,  order,  and  a  new 
prosperity  to  the  war-worn  and  desolated  lands  of  Italy,  his  Frankish 


THE     OSTROGOTHS  47 

496-526 

rival,  Clovis,  defeated  the  Alemanni  near  Strasburg  in  496.  It  was 
immediately  after  this  battle  that  Clovis,  in  accordance,  it  is  said, 
with  a  vow  made  during  the  battle,  adopted  the  Christian  religion  of 
his  wife  and  allowed  himself  to  be  baptized  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Rheims.  His  example  was  followed  by  his  Frankish  chieftains, 
and  thus  began  that  close  union  between  the  Frankish  kings  and  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  which  was  to  last  for  centuries.  For  Clo- 
vis and  the  Franks  adopted  the  orthodox  or  Roman  Catholic  form 
of  Christianity,  and  not  the  Arian  form,  which  had  been  adopted  by 
almost  all  the  other  Germans  who  had  become  Christians.  We 
must  return  to  Clovis  and  the  history  of  his  dynasty  in  a  later 
chapter,  and  will  now  only  briefly  mention  those  incidents  of  his 
reign  which  brought  him  into  conflict  with  Theodoric. 

In  the  year  5CX)  Clovis  defeated  the  Burgnndians  and  for  a 
time  rendered  them  tributary  to  him.  He  then  turned  to  the  Visi- 
goths and  made  the  fact  of  their  being  Arian  Christians  a  pretext 
for  declaring  war  against  them.  Their  king  was  Alaric  II.,  who 
had  married  the  daughter  of  Theodoric.  A  battle  was  fought  in 
507 ;  the  two  kings  met,  and,  fighting  hand  to  hand,  Alaric  II.  was 
slain  by  Clovis.  The  latter  soon  afterward  took  and  plundered 
Toulouse,  the  Visigoth  capital,  and  added  to  the  Frankish  kingdom 
all  of  southern  Gaul  except  a  strip  of  land  along  the  Mediterranean 
from  the  Rhone  to  the  Pyrenees,  known  as  Septimania  or  Gothia. 
His  power  and  fame  were  so  great  that  the  Emperor  Anastasius, 
to  keep  up  the  pretense  of  retaining  his  power  in  Gaul,  appointed 
Clovis  Roman  consul,  and  sent  him  a  royal  diadem  and  purple  man- 
tle. So  much  respect  was  still  attached  to  the  name  of  the  empire 
that  Clovis  accepted  the  title,  and  was  solemnly  invested  by  a  Chris- 
tian bishop  with  the  crown  and  mantle.  In  the  year  511  he  died, 
having  founded  the  Frankish  Kingdom. 

The  power  of  Theodoric  was  not  again  assailed.  As  king 
of  the  Ostrogoths  he  ruled  over  Italy  and  the  islands,  and  the  lands 
between  the  Adriatic  and  the  Danube;  as  guardian  of  the  young 
Visigothic  king,  Amalaric,  son  of  Alaric  II.,  his  sway  extended  over 
southern  France  and  all  of  Spain.  He  was  peaceful,  prudent,  and 
wise,  and  his  reign,  by  contrast  with  the  convulsions  which  preceded 
it,  was  called  "  a  golden  age  "  by  his  Italian  subjects.  Although 
he  and  his  people  were  Germanic  in  blood  and  Arians  in  faith,  while 
the  Italians  were  Roman  and  Athanasian,  he  guarded  the  interests 
and  subdued  the  prejudices  of  both,  and  the  respect  which  his  abili- 


48  GERMANY 

626-534 

ties  inspired  preserved  peace  between  them.  The  murder  of  Odo- 
acer  is  a  lasting  stain  upon  his  memory ;  the  execution  of  the  philos- 
opher Boethius  is  another,  scarcely  less  dark;  but,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  these  two  acts,  his  reign  was  marked  by  wisdom,  justice,  and 
tolerance.  The  surname  of  "  The  Great "  was  given  to  him  by  his 
contemporaries,  not  so  much  to  distinguish  him  from  the  Theodoric 
of  the  Visigoths,  as  on  account  of  his  eminent  qualities  as  a  ruler. 
From  the  year  5CX)  to  526,  when  he  died,  he  was  the  most  powerful 
and  important  monarch  of  the  civilized  world. 

During  Theodoric's  life  Ravenna  was  the  capital  of  Italy. 
Rome  had  lost  her  ancient  renown,  but  her  bishops,  who  were  now 
called  Popes,  were  the  rulers  of  the  Church  of  the  West,  and  she 
thus  became  a  religious  capital.  The  ancient  enmity  of  the  Arians 
and  Athanasians  had  only  growln  stronger  by  time,  and  Theodoric, 
although  he  became  popular  with  the  masses  of  the  people,  was 
always  hated  by  the  priests.  When  he  died  a  splendid  mausoleum 
was  built  for  his  body  at  Ravenna  and  still  remains  standing.  It 
is  a  circular  tower,  resting  on  an  arched  base  with  ten  sides,  and 
surmounted  by  a  dome,  which  is  formed  of  a  single  stone,  thirty-six 
feet  in  diameter  and  four  feet  in  thickness.  The  sarcophagus  in 
which  he  was  laid  was  afterward  broken  open,  by  the  order  of  the 
Pope  of  Rome,  and  his  ashes  were  scattered  to  the  winds,  as  those 
of  a  heretic. 

When  Theodoric  died  the  enmities  of  race  and  sect  which  he 
had  suppressed  with  a  strong  hand  broke  out  afresh.  He  left 
behind  him  a  grandson,  Athalaric,  only  ten  years  old,  to  whose 
mother,  Amalasunta,  was  intrusted  the  regency,  during  his  minority. 
His  other  grandson,  Amalaric,  was  king  of  the  Visigoths,  and  suf- 
ficiently occupied  in  building  up  his  power  in  Spain.  In  Italy  the 
hostility  to  Amalasunta's  regency  was  chiefly  religious;  but  the 
Eastern  emperor,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Franks  on  the  other,  were 
actuated  by  political  considerations.  The  former,  Justinian,  the  last 
of  the  great  emperors,  determined  to  recover  Italy  for  the  empire ; 
the  latter  only  waited  an  opportunity  to  get  possession  of  the  whole 
of  Gaul.  Amalasunta  was  persuaded  to  sign  a  treaty,  by  which 
the  territory  of  Provence  was  given  back  to  the  Burgundians.  The 
latter  were  immediately  assailed  by  the  sons  of  Clovis,  and  in  the 
year  534  the  kingdom  of  Burgundy,  after  having  stood  for  125 
years,  was  absorbed  into  the  Prankish  Kingdom. 

While  these  changes  were  taking  place  in  the  West,  Justinian 


THE     OSTROGOTHS  49 

534-552 

had  not  been  idle  in  the  East.  He  was  fortunate  in  having  two  great 
generals,  Belisarius  and  Narses,  who  had  already  restored  the  lost 
prestige  of  the  imperial  army.  His  first  movement  was  to  recover 
northern  Africa  from  the  Vandals,  who  had  now  been  settled  there 
for  a  hundred  years,  and  had  begun  to  consider  themselves  the 
inheritors  of  the  Carthaginian  power.  Belisarius,  with  a  fleet  and 
a  powerful  army,  was  sent  against  them.  Here,  again,  the  differ- 
ence of  religious  doctrine  between  the  Vandals  and  the  Romans 
whom  they  had  subjected  made  his  task  easy.  The  last  Vandal 
king,  Gelimer,  was  defeated  and  besieged  in  Pappua,  a  fortress  on 
the  northern  coast  of  Africa  west  of  Carthage.  After  the  siege  had 
lasted  all  winter,  Belisarius  sent  an  officer,  Pharas,  to  demand  sur- 
render. Gelimer  refused,  but  added:  "  If  you  will  do  me  a  favor, 
Pharas,  send  me  a  loaf  of  bread,  a  sponge,  and  a  harp."  Pharas, 
astonished,  asked  the  reason  of  this  request  and  Gelimer  answered : 
"  I  demand  bread,  because  I  have  seen  none  since  I  have  been  be- 
sieged here ;  a  sponge,  to  cool  my  eyes,  which  are  weary  with  weep- 
ing, and  a  harp,  to  sing  the  story  of  my  misfortunes."  Soon  after- 
ward he  surrendered,  and  in  534  all  northern  Africa  was  restored 
to  Justinian.  The  Vandals  disappeared  from  history,  as  a  race, 
but  some  of  their  descendants,  with  light  hair,  blue  eyes  and  fair 
skins,  still  live  among  the  valleys  of  the  Atlas  Mountains,  where 
they  are  called  Berbers,  and  keep  themselves  distinct  from  the  Arab 
population. 

Amalasunta,  in  the  meantime,  had  been  murdered  by  a  relative 
whom  she  had  chosen  to  assist  her  in  the  government.  This  gave 
Justinian  a  pretext  for  interfering,  and  Belisarius  was  next  sent 
with  his  army  to  Italy.  The  Ostrogoths  chose  a  new  king,  Vitiges, 
and  the  struggle  which  followed  was  long  and  desperate.  Rome 
and  Milan  were  taken  and  ravaged;  in  the  latter  city  300,000  persons 
are  said  to  have  been  slaughtered.  Belisarius  finally  obtained  pos- 
session of  Ravenna,  the  Gothic  capital,  took  Vitiges  prisoner  and 
sent  him  to  Constantinople.  The  Goths  immediately  elected  another 
king,  Totila,  who  carried  on  the  struggle  for  eleven  years  longer. 
Visigoths,  Franks,  Burgundians,  and  even  Alemanni,  whose  alli- 
ance was  sought  by  both  sides,  flocked  to  Italy  in  the  hope  of  secur- 
ing booty,  and  laid  waste  the  regions  which  Belisarius  and  Totila 
had  spared. 

When  Belisarius  was  recalled  to  Constantinople,  Narses  took 
his  place,  and  continued  the  war  with  the  diminishing  remnant  of 


50  GERMANY 

552-565 

the  Ostrogoths.  Finally,  in  the  year  552,  in  a  great  battle  among 
the  Apennines,  Totila  was  slain,  and  the  struggle  seemed  to  be  at 
an  end.  But  the  Ostrogoths  proclaimed  the  young  Prince  Teias 
as  their  king,  and  marched  southward  under  his  leadership,  to  make 
a  last  fight  for  their  existence  as  a  nation.  Narses  followed,  and  not 
far  from  Cumae,  on  a  mountain  opposite  Vesuvius,  he  cut  off  their 
communication  with  the  sea,  and  forced  them  to  retreat  to  a  higher 
position,  where  there  was  neither  water  for  themselves  nor  food  for 
their  animals.  Then  they  took  the  bridles  off  their  horses  and 
turned  them  loose,  formed  themselves  into  a  solid  square  of  men, 
with  Teias  at  their  head,  and  for  two  whole  days  fought  with  the 
valor  and  the  desperation  of  men  who  know  that  their  cause  is  lost, 
but  nevertheless  will  not  yield.  Although  Teias  was  slain,  they 
still  stood ;  and  on  the  third  morning  Narses  allowed  the  survivors, 
about  one  thousand  in  number,  to  march  away,  with  the  promise 
that  they  would  leave  Italy. 

Thus  gloriously  came  to  an  end,  after  enduring  sixty  years,  the 
Gothic  power  in  Italy,  and  thus,  like  a  meteor,  brightest  before  it 
is  quenched,  the  Gothic  name  fades  from  history.  The  Visigoths 
retained  their  supremacy  in  Spain  until  711,  when  Roderick,  their 
last  king,  was  slain  by  the  Saracens ;  but  the  Ostrogoths,  after  this 
campaign  of  Narses,  are  never  heard  of  again  as  a  people.  Between 
Hermann  and  Charlemagne  there  is  no  leader  so  great  as  Theodoric ; 
but  his  empire  died  with  him.  He  became  the  hero  of  the  earliest 
German  songs ;  his  name  and  character  were  celebrated  among  tribes 
who  had  forgotten  his  history,  and  his  tomb  is  one  of  the  few  monu- 
ments left  to  us  from  these  ages  of  battle,  migration,  and  change. 
The  Ostrogoths  were  scattered  and  their  traces  lost.  Some,  no 
doubt,  remained  in  Italy,  and  became  mixed  with  the  native  popula- 
tion ;  others  joined  the  people  which  were  nearest  to  them  in  blood 
and  habits ;  and  some  took  refuge  among  the  fastnesses  of  the  Alps. 
It  is  supposed  that  the  Tyrolese,  for  instance,  may  be  among  their 
descendants. 

The  apparent  success  of  Justinian  in  bringing  Italy  again  under 
the  sway  of  the  Eastern  Empire  was  also  only  a  flash  before  its  final 
extinction.  The  Ostrogoths  were  avenged  by  one  of  their  kindred 
races.  Narses  remained  in  Ravenna  as  vicegerent  of  the  empire; 
his  government  was  stern  and  harsh,  but  he  restored  order  to  the 
country,  and  his  authority  became  so  great  as  to  excite  the  jealousy 
of  Justinian.    After  the  latter's  death,  in  565,  it  became  evident 


THE     OSTROGOTHS  51 

565-570 

that  a  plot  was  formed  at  Constantinople  to  treat  Narses  as  his 
great  contemporary,  Belisarius,  had  been  treated.  He  determined 
to  resist,  and,  in  order  to  make  his  position  stronger,  is  said  to  have 
summoned  the  Longobards  (Long-Beards)  to  his  aid. 

This  tribe,  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  occupied  a  part  of  northern 
Germany,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe.  About  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century  we  find  them  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Danube,  between 
Bohemia  and  Hungary.  The  history  of  their  wanderings  during 
the  intervening  period  is  unknown.  During  the  reign  of  Theodoric 
they  overcame  their  Germanic  neighbors,  the  Heruli,  to  whom  they 
had  been  partially  subject;  then  followed  a  fierce  struggle  with  the 
Gepidae,  another  Germanic  tribe,  which  terminated  in  the  year  560, 
with  the  defeat  and  destruction  of  the  latter.  Their  king,  Kuni- 
mund,  fell  by  the  hand  of  Alboin,  king  of  the  Longobards,  who  had 
a  drinking-cup  made  of  his  skull.  The  Longobards,  though  vic- 
torious, found  themselves  surrounded  by  new  neighbors  who  were 
much  worse  than  the  old.  The  Avars,  who  are  supposed  to  have 
been  a  branch  of  the  Huns,  pressed  and  harassed  them  on  the  east ; 
the  Slavonic  tribes  of  the  north  descended  into  Bohemia,  and  they 
found  themselves  alone  between  races  who  were  savages  in  com- 
parison with  their  own. 

The  invitation  of  Narses  was  followed  by  a  movement  similar 
to  that  of  the  Ostrogoths  under  Theodoric.  Alboin  marched  with 
all  his  people,  their  herds,  and  household  goods.  The  passes  of 
the  Alps  were  purposely  left  undefended  at  their  approach,  and  in 
568,  accompanied  by  the  fragments  of  many  other  Germanic  tribes 
who  gave  up  their  homes  on  the  Danube,  they  entered  Italy  and 
took  immediate  possession  of  all  the  northern  provinces.  The  city 
of  Pavia,  which  was  strongly  fortified,  held  out  against  them  for 
four  years,  and  then,  on  account  of  its  strength  and  gallant  resist- 
ance, was  chosen  by  Alboin  for  his  capital. 

Italy  then  became  the  kingdom  of  the  Longobards,  and  the 
permanent  home  of  their  race,  whose  name  still  exists  in  the  province 
of  Lombardy.  Only  Ravenna,  Naples,  and  Genoa  were  still  held 
by  the  Eastern  emperors,  constituting  what  was  called  the  Exarchy. 
Rome  was  also  nominally  subject  to  Constantinople,  although  the 
Popes  were  beginning  to  assume  the  government  of  the  city.  The 
young  republic  of  Venice,  already  organized,  was  safe  on  its  islands 
in  the  Adriatic. 

The  migrations  of  the  races,  which  were  really  commenced 


52  GERMANY 

570 

by  the  Goths  when  they  moved  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea, 
terminated  with  the  settlement  of  the  Longobards  in  Italy.  They 
therefore  occupied  two  centuries,  and  form  a  gjand  and  stirring 
period  of  transition  between  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  Europe  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  With  the  exception  of  the  invasion  of  the  Huns, 
and  the  slow  and  rather  uneventful  encroachment  of  the  Slavonic 
race,  these  great  movements  were  carried  out  by  the  kindred  tribes 
who  inhabited  the  forests  of  "  Germania  Magna,"  in  the  time  of 
Caesar. 


Chapter  VIII 

EUROPE  AT  THE  END  OF  THE  MIGRATIONS  OF  THE 

RACES.    570  A.  D. 

THUS  far  we  have  been  following  the  history  of  the  Ger- 
manic races,  in  their  conflict  with  Rome,  until  their  com- 
plete and  final  triumph  at  the  end  of  six  hundred  years 
after  they  first  met  Julius  Caesar.  Within  the  limits  of  Germany 
itself  there  was,  as  we  have  seen,  no  united  nationality.  Even  the 
consolidation  of  the  smaller  tribes  under  the  names  of  Goths,  Franks, 
Saxons,  and  Alemanni,  during  the  third  century,  was  only  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  political  development  which  was  not  continued  upon 
German  soil.  With  the  exception  of  Denmark,  Sweden,  Russia, 
Ireland,  Wales,  the  Scottish  Highlands,  and  the  Byzantine  territory 
in  Turkey,  Greece,  and  Italy,  all  Europe  was  under  Germanic  rule 
at  the  end  of  the  migrations  of  the  races,  in  the  year  570. 

The  Longobards,  even  after  the  death  of  Alboin,  still  prospered 
greatly,  and  under  the  wise  rule  of  Queen  Theodolind  were  per- 
suaded to  become  Christians.  They  then  gave  up  their  nomadic 
habits,  scattered  themselves  over  the  country,  learned  agriculture 
and  the  mechanic  arts,  and  gradually  became  amalgamated  with  the 
native  Romans.  Their  descendants  form  a  large  portion  of  the 
population  of  northern  Italy  at  this  day. 

The  Franks,  at  this  time,  were  firmly  established  in  Gaul,  under 
the  dynasty  founded  by  Clovis.  They  owned  nearly  all  the  terri- 
tory west  of  the  Rhine,  part  of  western  Switzerland,  and  the  valley 
of  the  Rhone,  to  the  Mediterranean.  Only  the  small  strip  of  terri- 
tory on  the  southeast,  between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Garonne,  known  as  Septimania,  still  belonged  to  the  Visi- 
goths. The  connection  of  the  Visigoths  with  the  other  German 
races  gradually  ceased.  They  conquered  the  Suevi,  driving  them 
into  the  mountains  of  Galicia,  subdued  the  Alans  in  Portugal,  and 
during  a  reign  of  two  centuries  more  impressed  their  traces  indeli- 
bly upon  the  Spanish  people.  Their  history,  from  this  time  on, 
belongs  to  Spain.    Their  near  relations,  the  Vandals,  as  we  have 

£3 


64  GERMANY 

570 

already  seen,  had  ceased  to  exist.  Like  the  Ostrogoths,  they  were 
never  named  again  as  a  separate  people. 

The  Saxons  had  made  themselves  such  thorough  masters  of 
England  and  the  Lowlands  of  Scotland  that  the  native  Romanized 
Celtic  population  was  driven  into  Wales  and  Cornwall.  This  na- 
tive population  had  become  Christian  under  the  empire,  and 
looked  with  horror  upon  the  paganism  of  the  Saxons.  During  the 
early  part  of  the  sixth  century  they  made  a  bold  but  brief  effort  to 
expel  the  invaders,  under  the  lead  of  the  half-fabulous  King  Arthur 
of  the  Round  Table.  The  Angles  and  Saxons,  however,  not  only 
triumphed,  but  planted  their  language,  laws,  and  character  so  firmly 
upon  English  soil  that  the  England  of  the  later  centuries  grew  from 
the  basis  they  laid,  and  the  name  of  Anglo-Saxon  has  become  the 
designation  of  the  English  race  all  over  the  world. 

Along  the  northern  coast  of  Germany  the  Frisii  and  the  Saxons 
who  remained  behind  had  formed  two  kingdoms  and  asserted  a 
fierce  independence.  The  territory  of  the  latter  extended  to  the 
Harz  Mountains,  where  it  met  that  of  the  Thuringians,  who  still 
held  central  Germany,  southward  to  the  Danube.  Beyond  that 
river  the  new  nation  of  the  Bavarians  was  permanently  settled,  and 
had  already  risen  to  such  importance  that  Theodolind,  the  daughter 
of  its  king,  Garibald,  was  selected  for  his  queen  by  the  Longobard 
king,  Autharis. 

East  of  the  Elbe,  through  Prussia,  nearly  the  whole  country 
was  occupied  by  various  Slavonic  tribes.  One  of  these,  the  Czechs, 
had  taken  possession  of  Bohemia,  where  they  soon  afterward  estab- 
lished an  independent  kingdom.  Beyond  them  the  Avars  occupied 
Hungary,  now  and  then  making  invasions  into  German  territory, 
or  even  to  the  borders  of  Italy.  Denmark  and  Sweden,  owing  to 
their  remoteness  from  the  great  theater  of  action,  were  scarcely 
affected  by  the  political  changes  we  have  described. 

Finally,  the  Alemanni,  though  defeated  and  held  back  by  the 
Franks,  maintained  their  independence  in  the  southwestern  part  of 
Germany  and  in  eastern  Switzerland,  where  their  descendants  are 
living  at  this  day.  Each  of  all  these  new  nationalities  included  rem- 
nants of  the  smaller  original  tribes,  which  had  lost  their  independ- 
ence in  the  general  struggle,  and  which  soon  became  more  or  less 
mixed  (except  in  England)  with  the  former  inhabitants  of  the 
conquered  soil. 

Nearly  all  Europe  was  thus  portioned  among  men  of  German 


END     OF     MIGRATIONS  65 

570 

blood,  very  few  of  whom  ever  again  migrated  from  the  soil  whereon 
they  are  now  settled.  It  was  their  custom  to  demand  one-third — 
in  some  few  instances  two-thirds — of  the  conquered  territory  for 
their  own  people.  In  this  manner,  Frank  and  Gaul,  Longobard  and 
Roman,  Visigoth  and  Spaniard,  found  themselves  side  by  side,  and 
reciprocally  influenced  each  other's  speech  and  habits  of  life.  It 
must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  new  nations  lost  their 
former  character  and  took  on  that  of  the  Germanic  conquerors. 
Almost  the  reverse  of  this  took  place.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
the  Gauls,  for  instance,  far  outnumbered  the  Franks ;  that  each  con- 
quest was  achieved  by  a  few  thousand  men,  most  of  them  warriors, 
while  each  of  the  original  Roman  provinces  had  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  inhabitants.  There  must  have  been  at  least  ten  of  the 
ruled  to  one  of  the  ruling  race. 

The  latter,  moreover,  were  greatly  inferior  to  the  former  in 
all  the  arts  of  civilization.  In  the  homes,  the  dress  and  ornaments, 
the  social  intercourse,  and  all  the  minor  features  of  life,  they  found 
their  new  neighbors  above  them,  and  they  were  quick  to  learn  the 
use  of  unaccustomed  comforts  or  luxuries.  All  the  cities  and  small 
towns  were  Roman  in  their  architecture,  in  their  municipal  organi- 
zation, and  in  the  character  of  their  trade  and  intercourse;  and  the 
conquerors  found  it  easier  to  accept  this  old-established  order  than 
to  change  it. 

Another  circumstance  contributed  to  Latinize  the  German  races 
outside  of  Germany.  After  the  invention  of  a  Gothic  alphabet  by 
Bishop  Ulfilas,  and  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  we  hear  no  more  of 
a  written  German  language  until  the  eighth  century.  There  was 
at  least  none  that  was  accessible  to  the  people,  and  the  Latin  contin- 
ued to  be  the  language  of  government  and  religion.  The  priests 
were  nearly  all  Romans,  and  their  interest  was  to  prevent  the  use 
of  written  Germanic  tongues.  Such  learning  as  remained  to  the 
world  was  of  course  only  to  be  acquired  through  a  knowledge  of 
Latin  and  Greek. 

All  the  influences  which  surrounded  the  conquering  races 
tended,  therefore,  to  eradicate  or  change  their  original  German 
characteristics.  After  a  few  centuries  their  descendants,  in  almost 
every  instance,  lost  sight  of  their  origin,  and  even  looked  with  con- 
tempt upon  rival  people  of  the  same  blood.  The  Franks  and  Bur- 
gundians  of  the  present  day  speak  of  themselves  as  "Latin  races  " ; 
the  blond  and  the  blue-eyed  Lombards  of  northern  Italy,  not  long 


56 


GERMANY 


S70 

since,  hated  "  the  Germans,"  as  the  Christian  of  the  Middle  Ages 
hated  the  Jew;  and  the  full-blooded  English  or  American  Saxon 
often  considers  the  German  as  a  foreigner  with  whom  he  has 
nothing  in  common. 

By  the  year  570  almost  all  the  races  outside  of  Germany,  ex- 
cept the  Saxons  and  Angles,  had  accepted  Christianity.  Within 
Germany,  although  the  Christian  missionaries  were  at  work  ainong 
the  Alemanni,  the  Bavarians,  and  along  the  Rhine,  the  great  body  of 
the  people  still  held  to  their  old  pagan  worship.  The  influence  of 
the  true  faith  was  no  doubt  weakened  by  the  bitter  enmity  which  still 
existed  between  the  Athanasian  and  Arian  sects,  although  the  latter 
ceased  to  be  powerful  after  the  downfall  of  the  Ostrogoths.  But 
the  Christianity  which  prevailed  among  the  Franks,  Burgundians, 
and  Longobards  was  not  pure  or  intelligent  enough  to  save  them 
from  the  vices  which  the  Roman  Empire  left  behind  it.  Many  of 
their  kings  and  nobles  were  polygamists,  and  the  early  history  of 
their  dynasties  is  a  chronicle  of  falsehood,  cruelty,  and  murder. 

In  each  of  the  races  the  primitive  habit  of  electing  chiefs  by 
the  people  had  long  since  given  way  to  an  hereditary  monarchy,  but 
in  other  respects  their  political  organization  remained  much  the 
same.  The  Franks  introduced  into  Gaul  the  old  German  division 
of  the  land  into  provinces,  hundreds,  and  communities,  but  the  king 
now  claimed  the  right  of  appointing  a  count  for  the  first,  a  cente- 
narius,  or  centurion,  for  the  second,  and  an  elder,  or  head-man,  for 
the  third.  The  people  still  held  their  public  assemblies  and  settled 
their  local  matters ;  they  were  all  equal  before  the  law,  and  the  free- 
men paid  no  taxes.  The  right  of  declaring  war,  making  peace,  and 
other  questions  of  national  importance  were  decided  by  a  general 
assembly  of  the  people,  at  which  the  king  presided.  The  political 
system  was  therefore  more  republican  than  monarchical,  but  it  grad- 
ually lost  the  former  character  as  the  power  of  the  kings  increased. 

The  nobles  had  no  fixed  place  and  no  special  rights  during  the 
migrations  of  the  tribes.  Among  the  Franks  they  were  partly 
formed  out  of  the  civil  officers,  and  soon  included  both  Romans  and 
Gauls  among  their  number.  In  Germany  their  hereditary  succes- 
sion was  already  secured,  and  they  maintained  their  ascendency  over 
the  common  people  by  keeping  pace  with  the  knowledge  of  the  arts 
of  those  times,  while  the  latter  remained,  for  the  most  part,  in  a 
state  of  ignorance. 

The  cities,  inhabited  by  Romans  and  Romanized  Gauls,  retained 


END     OF     MIGRATIONS  57 

570 

their  old  system  of  government,  but  paid  a  tax  or  tribute.  Those 
portions  of  other  Germanic  races  which  had  become  subject  to  the 
Franks  were  also  allowed  to  keep  their  own  peculiar  laws  and  forms 
of  local  government,  which  were  now,  for  the  first  time,  recorded 
in  the  Latin  language.  They  were  obliged  to  furnish  a  certain 
number  of  men  capable  of  bearing  arms,  but  it  does  not  appear  that 
they  paid  any  tribute  to  the  Franks. 

Slavery  still  existed  in  the  two  forms  which  we  find  among  the 
ancient  Germans — chattels  who  were  bought  and  sold,  and  depend- 
ents who  were  bound  to  give  labor  or  tribute  in  return  for  the  pro- 
tection of  a  freeman.  The  Romans  in  Gaul  were  placed  upon  the 
latter  footing  by  the  Franks.  The  children  born  of  marriages  be- 
tween them  and  the  free  took  the  lower  and  not  the  higher  position 
— that  is,  they  were  dependents. 

The  laws  in  regard  to  crime  were  very  rigid  and  severe,  but 
not  bloody.  The  body  of  the  freeman,  like  his  life,  was  considered 
inviolate,  so  there  was  no  corporal  punishment,  and  death  was  only 
inflicted  in  a  few  extreme  cases.  The  worst  crimes  could  be  atoned 
for  by  the  sacrifice  of  money  or  property.  For  the  murder  of  a 
freeman  the  penalty  was  200  shillings  (at  that  time  the  value  of  100 
oxen),  two-thirds  of  which  were  given  to  the  family  of  the  murdered 
person,  while  one-third  was  divided  between  the  judge  and  the  state. 
This  penalty  was  increased  threefold  for  the  murder  of  a  count  or  a 
soldier  in  the  field,  and  more  than  fourfold  for  that  of  a  bishop.  In 
some  of  the  codes  the  payment  was  fixed  even  for  the  murder  of  a 
duke  or  king.  The  slaying  of  a  dependent  or  a  Roman  only  cost 
half  as  much  as  that  of  a  free  Frank,  while  a  slave  was  only  valued 
at  35  shillings,  or  seventeen  and  a  half  oxen;  the  theft  of  a  falcon 
trained  for  hunting,  or  a  stallion,  cost  10  shillings  more. 

Slander,  insult,  and  false-witness  were  punished  in  the  same 
way.  If  anyone  falsely  accused  another  of  murder  he  was  con- 
demned to  pay  the  injured  person  the  penalty  fixed  for  the  crime  of 
murder,  and  the  same  rule  was  applied  to  all  minor  accusations. 
The  charge  of  witchcraft,  if  not  proved  according  to  the  supersti- 
tious ideas  of  the  people,  was  followed  by  the  penalty  of  180  shill- 
ings. Whoever  called  another  a  hare,  i.  e.,  a  coward,  was  fined  6 
shillings ;  but  if  he  called  him  a  fox,  i.  e.,  a  thief  or  liar,  the  fine  was 
only  3  shillings. 

As  the  Germanic  races  became  Christian,  the  power  and  privi- 
leges of  the  priesthood  were  manifested  in  the  changes  made  in 


58  GERMANY 

570 

these  laws.  Not  only  was  it  enacted  that  the  theft  of  property- 
belonging  to  the  church  must  be  paid  back  ninefold,  but  the  slaves 
of  the  priests  were  valued  at  double  the  amount  fixed  for  the  slaves 
of  laymen.  The  churches  became  sacred,  and  no  criminal  could  be 
seized  at  the  foot  of  the  altar.  Those  who  neglected  to  attend  wor- 
ship on  Sunday,  three  times  in  succession,  were  punished  by  the  loss 
of  one-third  of  their  property.  If  this  neglect  was  repeated  a 
second  time,  they  were  made  slaves,  and  could  be  sold  as  such  by 
the  church. 

The  laws  of  the  still  pagan  Thuringians  and  Saxons,  in  Ger- 
many, did  not  differ  materially  from  those  of  the  Christian  Franks. 
Justice  was  administered  in  assemblies  of  the  people,  and,  in  order 
to  secure  the  largest  expression  of  the  public  will,  a  heavy  fine  was 
imposed  for  the  failure  to  attend.  The  latter  feature  is  still  retained 
in  some  of  the  old  cantons  of  Switzerland. 

The  transition  was  now  complete.  Although  the  art,  taste, 
and  refinement  of  the  Roman  Empire  were  lost,  its  civilizing  influ- 
ence in  law  and  civil  organization  survived,  and  slowly  subdued  the 
Germanic  races  which  inherited  its  territory.  But  many  character- 
istics of  their  early  barbarism  still  clung  to  the  latter,  and  a  long 
period  elapsed  before  we  can  properly  call  them  a  civilized  people. 


Chapter  IX 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  THE  FRANKS.    486-638  A.  D. 

OF  all  the  German  tribes,  the  most  important  in  history  are 
the  Franks,  who  first  become  prominent  in  history  under 
their  great  leader  Clovis.  In  fact,  the  history  of  Germany, 
from  the  middle  of  the  sixth  to  the  middle  of  the  ninth  centui-y,  is 
that  of  France  also.  Clovis  was  the  grandson  of  a  petty  king, 
whose  name  was  Meroveus,  whence  he  and  his  successors  are  called, 
in  history,  the  Merovingian  dynasty.  He  appears  to  have  been  a 
born  conqueror,  neither  very  just  nor  very  wise  in  his  actions,  but 
brave,  determined,  and  ready  to  use  any  means,  good  or  bad,  in 
order  to  attain  his  end. 

Clovis  extinguished  the  last  remnant  of  Roman  rule  in  Gaul, 
in  the  year  486,  by  the  defeat  of  Syagrius  and  the  Romans  in  the 
battle  of  Soissons.  He  was  then  only  twenty  years  old,  having 
succeeded  to  the  throne  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  Shortly  afterward 
he  married  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  Burgundian  kings.  She  was 
a  Christian,  and  endeavored,  but  for  many  years  without  effect,  to 
induce  him  to  give  up  his  pagan  faith.  Finally,  in  a  war  with  the 
Alemanni,  in  496,  he  promised  to  become  a  Christian  provided  the 
God  of  the  Christians  would  give  him  victory.  The  decisive  battle 
was  long  and  bloody,  but  it  ended  in  the  complete  rout  of  the  Ale- 
manni, and  afterward  all  of  them  who  were  living  to  the  west  of 
the  Rhine  became  tributary  to  the  Franks. 

Clovis  and  3000  of  his  followers  were  soon  afterward  baptized 
in  the  cathedral  at  Rheims,  by  the  Bishop  Remigius.  When  the 
king  advanced  to  the  baptismal  font  the  bishop  said  to  him :  "  Bow 
thy  head,  Sicambrian !  worship  what  thou  hast  persecuted,  persecute 
what  thou  hast  worshiped ! "  Although  nearly  all  the  German 
Christians  at  this  time  were  Arians,  Clovis  selected  the  Athanasian 
faith  of  Rome,  and  thereby  secured  the  support  of  the  Roman  priest- 
hood in  France,  which  was  of  great  service  to  him  in  his  ambitious 
designs.  This  difference  of  faith  also  gave  him  a  pretext  to  march 
against  the  Burgundians,  in  500,  and  the  Visigoths,  in  507;  both 
wars  were  considered  holy  by  the  church. 

69. 


60  GERMANY 

507-534 

His  conquest  of  the  Visigoths  was  prevented,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  the  interposition  of  Theodoric.  He  was  so  successful  that  when 
he  died,  in  511,  all  the  race  to  the  west  of  the  Rhine  was  united 
under  his  single  sway.  He  was  succeeded  by  four  sons,  of  whom 
the  eldest,  Theuderic,  reigned  in  Paris;  the  others  chose  Metz, 
Orleans,  and  Soissons  for  their  capitals.  Theuderic  was  a  man  of 
so  much  energy  and  prudence  that  he  was  able  to  control  his  broth- 
ers, and  unite  the  four  governments  in  such  a  way  that  the  kingdom 
was  saved  from  dismemberment. 

The  mother  of  Clovis  was  a  runaway  queen  of  Thuringia, 
whose  son,  Hermanf ried,  now  ruled  over  that  kingdom,  after  having 
deposed  his  two  brothers.  The  relationship  gave  Theuderic  a 
ground  for  interfering,  and  the  result  was  a  war  between  the  Franks 
and  the  Thuringians.  Theuderic  collected  a  large  army,  marched 
into  Germany  in  530,  procured  the  services  of  9000  Saxons  as  allies, 
and  met  the  Thuringians  on  the  River  Unstrut,  not  far  from  where 
the  city  of  Halle  now  stands.  Hermanfried  was  taken  prisoner, 
carried  to  France,  and  treacherously  thrown  from  a  tower,  after 
receiving  great  professions  of  friendship  from  his  nephew,  Theu- 
deric. His  family  fled  to  Italy,  and  the  kingdom  of  Thuringia, 
embracing  nearly  all  central  Germany,  was  added  to  that  of  the 
Franks.  The  northern  part,  however,  was  given  to  the  Saxons  as 
a  reward  for  their  assistance. 

Four  years  afterward  the  brothers  of  Theuderic  conquered  the 
kingdom  of  Burgimdy  and  annexed  it  to  their  territory.  About 
the  same  time  the  Franks  living  eastward  of  the  Rhine  entered  into 
a  union  with  their  more  powerful  brethren.  Since  both  the  Ale- 
manni  and  the  Bavarians  were  already  tributary  to  the  latter,  the 
dominion  of  the  united  Franks  now  extended  from  the  Atlantic 
nearly  to  the  River  Elbe,  and  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  to  the 
Mediterranean,  with  Friesland  and  the  kingdom  of  the  Saxons 
between  it  and  the  North  Sea. 

While  Theuderic  lived  his  brothers  observed  a  tolerably  peace- 
ful conduct  toward  one  another,  but  his  death  was  followed  by  a 
season  of  war  and  murder.  History  gives  us  no  record  of  another 
dynasty  so  steeped  in  crime  as  that  of  the  Merovingians ;  within  the 
compass  of  a  few  years  we  find  a  father  murdering  his  son,  a  brother 
his  brother,  and  a  wife  her  husband.  We  can  only  account  for  the 
fact  that  the  whole  land  was  not  constantly  convulsed  by  civil  war 
by  supposing  that  the  people  retained  enough  of  power  in  their  na- 


THEFRANKS  61 

534-568 

tional  assemblies  to  refuse  taking  part  in  the  fratricidal  quarrels. 
It  is  not  necessary,  therefore,  to  recount  all  the  details  of  the  bloody 
family  history.  Their  effect  upon  the  people  must  have  been  in 
the  highest  degree  demoralizing,  yet  the  latter  possessed  enough  of 
prudence — or  perhaps  of  a  clannish  spirit,  in  the  midst  of  a  much 
larger  Roman  and  Gallic  population — to  hold  the  Prankish  king- 
dom together,  while  its  rulers  were  doing  their  best  to  split  it  to 
pieces. 

The  result  of  all  the  quarreling  and  murdering  was  that  in  558 
Clotar,  the  youngest  son  of  Clovis,  became  the  sole  monarch.  After 
forty-seven  years  of  divided  rule  the  kingly  power  was  again  in  a 
single  hand,  and  there  seemed  to  be  a  chance  for  peace  and  progress. 
But  Clotar  died  within  three  years,  and,  like  his  father,  left  four 
sons  to  divide  his  power.  The  first  thing  they  did  was  to  fight; 
then,  being  perhaps  rather  equally  matched,  they  agreed  to  portion 
the  kingdom.  Charibert  reigned  in  Paris,  Guntram  in  Orleans, 
Chilperic  in  Soissons,  and  Sigbert  in  Metz,  but  the  exact  boundaries 
between  their  territories  are  uncertain. 

About  this  time  the  Avars,  coming  from  Hungary,  had  invaded 
Thuringia,  and  were  inciting  the  people  to  rebellion  against  the 
Franks.  Sigbert  immediately  marched  against  them,  drove  them 
back,  and  established  his  authority  over  the  Thuringians.  On 
returning  home  he  found  that  his  brother  Chilperic  had  taken  pos- 
session of  his  capital  and  many  smaller  towns.  Chilperic  was  forced 
to  retreat,  lost  his  own  kingdom  in  turn,  and  only  received  it  again 
through  the  generosity  of  Sigbert — the  first  and  only  instance  of 
such  a  virtue  in  the  Merovingian  line  of  kings.  Sigbert  seems  to 
have  inherited  the  abilities,  without  the  vices,  of  his  grandfather 
Clovis.  When  the  Avars  made  a  second  invasion  into  Germany 
he  was  not  only  defeated,  but  taken  prisoner  by  them.  Neverthe- 
less, he  immediately  acquired  such  influence  over  their  khan,  or 
chieftain,  that  he  persuaded  the  latter  to  set  him  free,  to  make  a 
treaty  of  peace  and  friendship,  and  to  return  with  his  Avars  to 
Hungary. 

In  the  year  568  Charibert  died  in  Paris,  leaving  no  heirs.  A 
new  strife  instantly  broke  out  among  the  three  remaining  brothers; 
but  it  was  for  a  time  suspended,  owing  to  the  approach  of  a  com- 
mon danger.  The  Longobards,  now  masters  of  northern  Italy, 
crossed  the  Alps  and  began  to  overrun  Switzerland,  which  the 
Franks  possessed,  through  their  victories  over  the  Burgundians 


6«  GERMANY 

S68-584 

and  the  Alemanni.  Sigbert  and  Guntram  united  their  forces,  and 
repelled  the  invasion  with  much  slaughter. 

Then  broke  out  in  France  a  series  of  family  wars,  darker  and 
bloodier  than  any  which  had  gone  before.  The  strife  between  the 
sons  of  Clotar  and  their  children  and  grandchildren  desolated 
France  for  forty  years,  and  became  all  the  more  terrible  because 
the  women  of  the  family  entered  into  it  with  the  men.  All  these 
Christian  kings,  like  their  father,  were  polygamists,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Sigbert;  he  had  but  one  wife,  Brunhilde,  the  daughter  of 
a  king  of  the  Visigoths,  a  stately,  handsome,  intelligent  woman, 
but  proud  and  ambitious. 

Either  the  power  and  popularity  or  the  rich  marriage-portion 
which  Sigbert  acquired  with  Brunhilde  induced  his  brother,  Chil- 
peric,  to  ask  the  hand  of  her  sister,  the  Princess  Galsunta  of  Spain. 
It  was  granted  to  him  on  condition  that  he  would  put  away  all  his 
wives  and  live  with  her  alone.  He  accepted  the  condition,  and  was 
married  to  Galsunta.  One  of  the  women  sent  away  was  Frede- 
gunde,  who  soon  found  means  to  recover  her  former  influence  over 
Chilperic's  mind.  It  was  not  long  before  Galstmta  was  found  dead 
in  her  bed,  and  within  a  week  Fredegunde,  the  murderess,  became 
queen  in  her  stead.  Brunhilde  called  upon  Sigbert  to  revenge  her 
sister's  death,  and  then  began  that  terrible  history  of  crime  and 
hatred  which  was  celebrated,  centuries  afterward,  in  the  famous 
"  Nibelungenlied/'  or  "  Lay  of  the  Nibelungs." 

In  the  year  575  Sigbert  gained  a  complete  victory  over  Chil- 
peric,  and  was  lifted  upon  a  shield  by  the  warriors  of  the  latter, 
who  hailed  him  as  their  king.  In  that  instant  he  was  stabbed  in 
the  back,  and  died  upon  the  field  of  his  triumph.  Chilperic  re- 
sumed his  sway,  and  soon  took  Brunhilde  prisoner,  while  her  young 
son,  Childebert,  escaped  to  Germany.  But  his  own  son,  Merwig, 
espoused  Brunhilde's  cause,  secretly  released  her  from  prison,  and 
then  married  her.  A  war  next  arose  between  father  and  son,  in 
which  the  former  was  successful.  He  cut  off  Merwig's  long  hair 
and  shut  him  up  in  a  monastery ;  but  for  some  unexplained  reason 
he  allowed  Brunhilde  to  go  free.  In  the  meantime  Fredegunde  had 
borne  three  sons,  who  all  died  soon  after  their  birth.  She  accused 
her  own  stepson  of  having  caused  their  deaths  by  witchcraft,  and 
he  and  his  mother,  one  of  Chilperic's  former  wives,  were  put  to 
death. 

Both  Chilperic  and  his  brother  Guntram,    who    reigned  at 


THE     FRANKS  68 

584-597 

Orleans,  were  without  male  heirs.  At  this  juncture  the  German 
chiefs  and  nobles  demanded  to  have  Childebert,  the  young  son  of 
Sigbert  and  Brunhilde,  who  had  taken  refuge  among  them,  recog- 
nized as  the  heir  to  the  Prankish  throne.  Chilperic  consented,  on 
condition  that  Childebert,  with  such  forces  as  he  could  command, 
would  march  with  him  against  Guntram,  who  had  despoiled  him 
of  a  great  deal  of  his  territory.  The  treaty  was  made,  in  spite  of 
the  opposition  of  Brunhilde,  whose  sister's  murder  was  not  yet 
avenged,  and  the  civil  wars  were  renewed.  Both  sides  gained  or 
lost  alternately,  without  any  decided  result,  until  the  assassination 
of  Chilperic,  by  an  unknown  hand,  in  584.  A  few  months  before 
his  death  Fredegunde  had  borne  him  another  son,  Clotar,  who 
lived,  and  was  at  once  presented  by  his  mother  as  Childebert's  rival 
to  the  throne. 

The  struggle  between  the  two  widowed  queens,  Brunhilde  and 
Fredegunde,  was  for  a  while  delayed  by  the  appearance  of  a  new 
claimant,  Gundobald,  who  had  been  a  fugitive  in  Constantinople 
for  many  years,  and  declared  that  he  was  Chilperic's  brother.  He 
obtained  the  support  of  many  Austrasian  (German)  princes,  and 
was  for  a  time  so  successful  that  Fredegunde  was  forced  to  take 
refuge  with  Guntram  at  Orleans.  The  latter  also  summoned 
Childebert  to  his  capital,  and  persuaded  him  to  make  a  truce  with 
Fredegunde  and  her  adherents,  in  order  that  both  might  act  against 
their  common  rival.  Gundobald  and  his  followers  were  soon  de- 
stroyed ;  Guntram  died  in  593,  and  Childebert  was  at  once  accepted 
as  his  successor.  His  kingdom  included  that  of  Charibert,  whose 
capital  was  Paris,  and  that  of  his  father,  Sigbert,  embracing  all 
Prankish  Germany.  But  the  nobles  and  people,  accustomed  to  con- 
spiracy, treachery,  and  crime,  could  no  longer  be  depended  upon, 
as  formerly.  They  were  beginning  to  return  to  their  former  system 
of  living  upon  war  and  pillage,  instead  of  the  honest  arts  of  peace. 

Fredegunde  still  held  the  kingdom  of  Chilperic  for  her  son 
Qotar.  After  strengthening  herself  by  secret  intrigues  with  the 
Prankish  nobles,  she  raised  an  army,  put  herself  at  its  head,  and 
marched  against  Childebert,  who  was  defeated  and  soon  afterward 
poisoned,  after  having  reigned  only  three  years.  His  realm  was 
divided  between  his  two  young  sons,  one  receiving  Burgimdy  and 
the  other  Germany,  under  the  guardianship  of  their  grandmother 
Brunhilde.  Fredegunde  followed  up  her  success,  took  Paris  and 
Orleans  from  the  heirs  of  Childebert,  and  died  in  597,  leaving  her 


64  GERMANY 

597-622 

son  Clotar,  then  in  his  fourteenth  year,  as  king  of  more  than  half 
of  France.    He  was  crowned  as  Clotar  II. 

Death  placed  Brunhilde's  rival  out  of  the  reach  of  her  re- 
venge, but  she  herself  might  have  secured  the  whole  kingdom  of 
the  Franks  for  her  two  grandsons  had  she  not  quarreled  with  one 
and  stirred  up  war  between  them.  Finding  that  her  cause  was  des- 
perate, Brunhilde  procured  the  assistance  of  Clotar  II,  for  herself 
and  her  favorite  grandson,  Theuderic.  The  fortune  of  war  now 
turned,  and  before  long  the  other  grandson,  Theudebert,  was  taken 
prisoner.  By  his  brother's  order  he  was  formally  deposed  from  his 
kingly  authority,  and  then  executed;  the  brains  of  his  infant  son 
were  dashed  out  against  a  stone. 

It  was  not  long  before  this  crime  was  avenged.  A  quarrel  in 
regard  to  the  division  of  the  spoils  arose  between  Theuderic  and 
Clotar  II.  The  former  died  in  the  beginning  of  the  war  which  fol- 
lowed, leaving  four  young  sons  to  the  care  of  their  great-grand- 
mother, the  queen  Brunhilde.  Clotar  II.  immediately  marched 
against  her,  but,  knowing  her  ability  and  energy,  he  obtained  a 
promise  from  the  nobles  of  Burgundy  and  Germany  who  were 
unfriendly  to  Brunhilde  that  they  would  come  over  to  his  side  at 
the  critical  moment.  The  aged  queen  had  called  her  people  to  arms, 
and,  like  her  rival,  Fredegunde,  put  herself  at  their  head;  but  when 
the  armies  met,  on  the  River  Aisne  in  Champagne,  the  traitors  in 
her  own  camp  joined  Clotar  II.  and  the  struggle  was  ended  without 
a  battle.  Brunhilde,  then  eighty  years  old,  was  taken  prisoner, 
cruelly  tortured  for  three  days,  and  then  tied  by  her  gray  hair  to 
the  tail  of  a  wild  horse  and  dragged  to  death.  The  four  sons  of 
Theuderic  were  put  to  death  at  the  same  time,  and  thus,  in  the 
year  613,  Clotar  II.  became  king  of  all  the  Franks.  A  priest  named 
Fredegar,  who  wrote  his  biography,  says  of  him :  "  He  was  a  most 
patient  man,  learned  and  pious,  and  kind  and  sympathizing  toward 
everyone! " 

Clotar  II.  possessed,  at  least,  energy  enough  to  preserve  a 
sway  which  was  based  on  a  long  succession  of  the  worst  crimes  that 
disgrace  humanity.  In  622,  six  years  before  his  death,  he  made 
his  oldest  son,  Dagobert,  a  boy  of  sixteen,  king  of  the  German 
half  of  his  realm,  but  was  obliged,  immediately  afterward,  to  assist 
him  against  the  Saxons.  He  entered  their  territory,  seized  the 
people,  massacred  all  who  proved  to  be  taller  than  his  own  two- 
handed  sword,  and  then  returned  to  France  without  having  sub- 


I 


THEFRANKS  66 

622-638 

dued  the  spirit  or  received  the  allegiance  of  the  bold  race.  Nothing 
of  importance  occurred  during  the  remainder  of  his  reign ;  he  died 
in  628,  leaving  his  kingdom  to  his  two  sons,  Dagobert  and  Chari- 
bert.  The  former  easily  possessed  himself  of  the  lion's  share,  giv- 
ing his  younger  brother  only  a  small  strip  of  territory  along  the 
River  Loire.  Charibert,  however,  drove  the  last  remnant  of  the 
Visigoths  into  Spain,  and  added  the  country  between  the  Garonne 
and  the  Pyrenees  to  his  little  kingdom.  The  name  of  Aquitaine 
was  given  to  this  region,  and  Charibert's  descendants  became  its 
dukes,  subject  to  the  kings  of  the  Franks. 

Dagobert  had  been  carefully  educated  by  Pippin  of  Landen, 
the  royal  steward  of  Clotar  II.,  and  by  Arnulf,  the  Bishop  of  Metz. 
He  had  no  quality  of  greatness,  but  he  promised  to  be,  at  least,  a 
good  and  just  sovereign.  He  became  at  once  popular  with  the 
masses,  who  began  to  long  for  peace,  and  for  the  restoration  of 
rights  which  had  been  partly  lost  during  the  civil  wars.  The 
nobles,  however,  who  had  drawn  the  greatest  advantage  from  those 
wars,  during  which  their  support  was  purchased  by  one  side  or  the 
other,  grew  dissatisfied.  They  cunningly  aroused  in  Dagobert  the 
love  of  luxury  and  the  sensual  vices  which  had  ruined  his  ancestors, 
and  thus  postponed  the  reign  of  law  and  justice  to  which  the  people 
were  looking  forward. 

In  fact,  that  system  of  freedom  and  equality  which  the  Ger- 
manic races  had  so  long  possessed  was  already  shaken  to  its  very 
base.  During  the  long  and  bloody  feuds  of  the  Merovingian  kings 
many  changes  had  been  made  in  the  details  of  government,  all 
tending  to  increase  the  power  of  the  nobles,  the  civil  officers,  and 
the  dignitaries  of  the  church.  Wealth — the  bribes  paid  for  their 
support — had  accumulated  in  the  hands  of  these  classes,  while  the 
farmers,  mechanics,  and  tradesmen,  plundered  in  turn  by  both  par- 
ties, had  constantly  grown  poorer.  Although  the  external  signs  of 
civilization  had  increased,  the  race  had  already  lost  much  of  its 
moral  character  and  some  of  the  best  features  of  its  political  system. 

There  are  few  chronicles  which  inform  us  of  the  affairs  of 
Germany  during  this  period.  The  Avars,  after  their  treaty  of 
peace  with  Sigbert,  directed  their  incursions  against  the  Bavarians, 
but  without  gaining  any  permanent  advantage.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Slavonic  tribes,  especially  the  Bohemians,  united  under  the  rule 
of  a  renegade  Frank,  whose  name  was  Samo,  and  who  acquired 
a  part  of  Thuringia,  after  defeating  the  Prankish  army  which  was 


66  GERMANY 

638 

sent  against  him.  The  Saxons  and  Thuringians  then  took  the  war 
into  their  own  hands,  and  drove  back  Samo  and  his  Slavonic  hordes. 
By  this  victory  the  Saxons  released  themselves  from  the  payment 
of  an  annual  tribute  to  the  Prankish  kings,  and  the  Thuringians  be- 
came strong  enough  to  organize  themselves  again  as  a  people  and 
elect  their  own  duke.  The  Franks  endeavored  to  suppress  this  new 
organization,  but  they  were  defeated  by  the  duke,  Radulf,  nearly 
on  the  same  spot  where,  just  one  hundred  years  before,  Theuderic, 
the  son  of  Clovis,  had  crushed  the  Thuringian  kingdom.  From  that 
time  Thuringia  was  placed  on  the  same  footing  as  Bavaria,  trib- 
utary to  the  Franks,  but  locally  independent. 

King  Dagobert,  weak,  swayed  by  whatever  influence  was  near- 
est, and  voluptuous  rather  than  cruel,  died  in  638,  before  he  had 
time  to  do  much  evil.  He  was  the  last  of  the  Merovingian  line  who 
exercised  any  actual  power.  The  dynasty  existed  for  a  century 
longer,  but  its  monarchs  were  mere  puppets  in  the  hands  of  stronger 
men.  Its  history,  from  the  beginning,  is  well  illustrated  by  a 
tradition  current  among  the  people  concerning  the  mother  of 
Clovis.  They  relate  that  soon  after  her  marriage  she  had  a  vision, 
in  which  she  gave  birth  to  a  lion  (Clovis),  whose  descendants  were 
wolves  and  bears,  and  their  descendants,  in  turn,  frisky  dogs. 

Before  the  death  of  Dagobert — in  fact,  during  the  life  of 
Clotar  II. — a  new  power  had  grown  up  within  the  kingdom  of  the 
Franks  which  gradually  pushed  the  Merovingian  dynasty  out  of 
its  place.  The  history  of  this  power,  after  638,  becomes  the  history 
of  the  realm,  and  we  now  turn  from  the  bloody  kings  to  trace  its 
origin,  rise,  and  final  triumph. 


Chapter  X 

THE  DYNASTY  OF  THE   MAYORS  OF  THE   PALACE 

638-768  A.D. 

WE  have  mentioned  Pippin  of  Landen  as  the  royal  steward 
of  Clotar  II.  His  office  gave  birth  to  the  new  power 
which  grew  up  beside  the  Merovingian  rule  and  finally 
suppressed  it.  In  the  chronicles  of  the  time  the  officer  is  called  the 
Majordomus  of  the  king, — a  word  which  may  be  translated 
"  Mayor  of  the  Palace  "  or  "  Steward  of  the  Royal  Household  " ; 
but  in  reality  it  embraced  much  more  extended  and  important 
powers  than  the  title  would  imply.  In  their  conquests  the  Franks 
— as  we  have  already  stated — usually  claimed  at  least  one-third  of 
the  territory  which  fell  into  their  hands.  A  part  of  this  was  por- 
tioned out  among  the  chief  men  and  the  soldiers;  a  part  was  set 
aside  as  the  king's  share,  and  still  another  part  became  the  common 
property  of  the  people.  The  latter,  therefore,  fell  into  the  habit 
of  electing  a  steward  to  guard  and  superintend  this  property  in  their 
interest,  and  as  the  kings  became  involved  in  their  family  feuds 
the  charge  of  the  royal  estates  was  intrusted  to  the  hands  of  the 
same  steward. 

The  latter  estates  soon  became,  by  conquest,  so  extensive  and 
important  that  the  king  gave  the  use  of  many  of  them  for  a  term 
of  years,  or  for  life,  to  private  individuals,  in  return  for  military 
services.  Such  an  estate  came  to  be  called  a  fief  or  feod,  whence 
the  term  "  feudal  system,"  which,  gradually  modified  by  time,  grew 
from  this  basis.  The  importance  of  the  royal  steward  in  the  king- 
dom is  thus  explained.  The  office,  at  first,  had  probably  a  mere 
business  character.  After  the  time  of  Clovis  the  civil  wars  by 
which  the  estates  of  the  king  and  the  people  became  subject  to 
constant  change  gave  the  steward  a  political  power,  which  in- 
creased with  each  generation.  He  stood  between  the  monarch  and 
his  subjects,  with  the  best  opportunity  for  acquiring  an  ascendency 
over  the  minds  of  both.  At  first  he  was  only  elected  for  a  year, 
and  his  reelection  depended  on  the  honesty  and  ability  with  which 

67 


68  GERMANY 

638-670 

he  had  dischargfed  his  duties.  During  the  convulsions  of  the 
dynasty  he,  in  common  with  king  and  nobles,  gained  what  rights 
the  people  lost ;  he  began  to  retain  his  office  for  a  longer  time,  then 
for  life,  and  finally  demanded  that  it  should  be  hereditary  in  his 
family. 

The  royal  stewards  of  Burgundy  and  Germany  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  last  struggle  between  Clotar  II.  and  Brunhilde. 
When  the  successful  king,  in  622,  found  that  the  increasing  differ- 
ence of  language  and  habits  between  the  eastern  and  western  por- 
tions of  his  realm  required  a  separation  of  the  government,  and 
made  his  young  son,  Dagobert,  ruler  over  the  German  half,  he  was 
compelled  to  recognize  Pippin  of  Landen  as  his  mayor  of  the  palace, 
and  to  trust  Dagobert  entirely  to  his  hands.  The  dividing  line  be- 
tween "  Austrasia  "  and  "  Neustria,"  as  the  eastern  and  western 
parts  of  the  Prankish  kingdom  were  called,  was  drawn  along  the 
chain  of  the  Vosges  through  the  forest  of  Ardennes,  and  termi- 
nated near  the  mouth  of  the  Schelde — almost  the  same  line  which 
divides  the  German  and  French  languages  at  this  day. 

Pippin  was  a  Frank,  born  in  the  Netherlands,  a  man  of  energy 
and  intelligence,  but  of  little  principle.  He  had,  nevertheless, 
shrewdness  enough  to  see  the  necessity  of  maintaining  the  unity  and 
peace  of  the  kingdom,  and  he  endeavored,  in  conjunction  with 
Bishop  Arnulf  of  Metz,  to  make  a  good  king  of  Dagobert.  They 
made  him,  indeed,  amiable  and  well-meaning,  but  they  could  not 
overcome  the  instability  of  his  character.  After  Clotar  II.'s  death, 
in  628,  Dagobert  passed  the  remaining  ten  years  of  his  life  in 
France,  under  the  control  of  others,  and  the  actual  government  of 
Germany  was  exercised  by  Pippin. 

The  period  of  transition  between  the  power  of  the  kingfs,  grad- 
ually sinking,  and  the  power  of  the  mayors  of  the  palace,  steadily 
rising,  lasted  about  fifty  years.  The  latter  power,  however,  was  not 
allowed  to  increase  without  frequent  struggles,  partly  from  the 
jealousy  of  the  nobility  and  priesthood,  partly  from  the  resistance 
of  the  people  to  the  extinction  of  their  remaining  rights.  But,  after 
the  devastation  left  behind  by  the  fratricidal  wars  of  the  Merovin- 
gians, all  parties  felt  the  necessity  of  a  strong  and  well-regulated 
government,  and  the  long  experience  of  the  mayors  gave  them  the 
advantage. 

Grimoald,  the  son  of  Pippin,  and  his  successor  as  mayor  in 
Germany,  made  an  attempt  to  usurp  the  royal  power,  but  failed. 


MAYORS     OF     THE     PALACE  69 

670-687 

This  event  led  the  Franks,  in  670— when  the  whole  kingdom  was 
again  united  under  Childeric  II. — to  decree  that  the  mayors  of  the 
palace  should  be  elected  annually  by  the  people,  as  in  the  beginning. 
But  when  Childeric  II.,  like  most  of  his  predecessors,  was  mur- 
dered, the  deposed  mayor  regained  his  power,  forced  the  people  to 
accept  him,  and  attempted  to  extend  his  government  over  Germany. 
In  spite  of  a  fierce  resistance,  headed  by  Pippin  of  Heristal,  the 
grandson  of  Pippin  of  Landen,  Grimoald  partly  maintained  his  au- 
thority until  the  year  681,  when  he  was  murdered  in  his  turn. 

Pippin  of  Heristal  was  also  the  grandson  of  Arnulf,  Bishop 
of  Metz,  whose  son,  Anchises,  had  married  Begga,  the  daughter  of 
Pippin  of  Landen.  He  was  of  Roman  blood  by  his  father's, 
and  Prankish  by  his  mother's  side.  As  soon  as  his  authority  was 
secured,  as  Majordomus  of  Germany,  he  invaded  France,  and  a 
desperate  struggle  for  the  stewardship  of  the  whole  kingdom  en- 
sued. It  was  ended  in  687  by  the  battle  of  Testri,  in  which  Pippin 
was  victorious.  He  used  his  success  with  a  moderation  very  rare 
in  those  days;  he  did  honor  to  the  Prankish  king,  Theuderic  III., 
who  had  fallen  into  his  hands,  spared  the  lives  and  possessions  of  all 
who  had  fought  against  him,  on  their  promise  not  to  take  up  arms 
against  his  authority,  and  even  continued  many  of  the  chief  officials 
of  the  Franks  in  their  former  places. 

From  this  date  the  Merovingian  monarch  became  a  shadow. 
Pippin  paid  him  all  external  signs  of  allegiance,  kept  up  the  cere- 
monies of  his  court,  supplied  him  with  ample  revenues,  and  gov- 
erned the  kingdom  in  his  name;  but  the  actual  power  was  concen- 
trated in  his  own  hands.  France,  Switzerland,  and  the  greater 
part  of  Germany  were  subjected  to  his  government,  although  there 
were  still  elements  of  discontent  within  the  realm,  and  of  trouble 
outside  of  its  borders.  The  dependent  dukedoms  of  Aquitaine,  Bur- 
gundy, Alemannia,  Bavaria,  and  Thuringia  were  restless  under  the 
yoke;  the  Saxons  and  Frisians  on  the  north  were  hostile  and  de- 
fiant, and  the  Slavonic  races  all  along  the  eastern  frontier  had  not 
yet  given  up  their  invasions. 

Pippin,  like  all  the  French  rulers  after  him,  until  the  Revolution 
of  1789,  perceived  the  advantage  of  having  the  Church  on  his  side. 
Moreover,  he  was  the  grandson  of  a  bishop,  which  circumstance — 
although  it  did  not  prevent  him  from  taking  two  wives — enabled 
him  better  to  understand  the  power  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  of 
Rome.    In  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  century  several  Christian 


70  GERMANY 

687-714 

missionaries,  principally  Irish,  had  begun  their  labors  among  the 
Alemanni  and  the  Bavarians,  but  the  greater  part  of  these  people, 
with  all  the  Thuringians,  Saxons,  and  Frisians,  were  still  wor- 
shipers of  the  old  pagan  gods.  Pippin  saw  that  through  the 
church  these  Germans  might  be  civilized  and  become  accustomed  to 
authority  and  obedience.  He  therefore  lent  his  aid  to  the  monks, 
and  all  the  southern  part  of  Germany  became  Christian  in  a  few 
years.  Force  was  employed,  as  well  as  persuasion ;  but  at  that  time 
the  end  was  considered  to  sanction  any  means. 

Pippin's  rule  (we  cannot  call  it  reign)  was  characterized  by 
the  greatest  activity,  patience,  and  prudence.  From  year  to  year 
the  kingdom  of  the  Franks  became  better  organized  and  stronger  in 
all  its  features  of  government.  Brittany,  Burgundy,  and  Aquitaine 
were  kept  quiet ;  the  northern  part  of  Holland  was  conquered  and 
immediately  given  into  the  charge  of  a  band  of  Anglo-Saxon  monks ; 
and  Germany,  although  restless  and  dissatisfied,  was  held  more 
firmly  than  ever.  Pippin  of  Heristal,  while  he  was  simply  called 
Majordomus,  exercised  a  wider  power  than  any  monarch  of  his 
time. 

When  he  died,  in  the  year  714,  the  kingdom  was  for  a  while 
convulsed  by  feuds  which  threatened  to  repeat  the  bloody  annals 
of  the  Merovingians.  His  heirs  were  Theudowald,  his  grandson  by 
his  wife  Plektrude,  and  Karl  and  Hildebrand,  his  sons  by  his  wife 
Alpheid.  He  chose  the  former  as  his 'successor,  and  Plektrude,  in 
order  to  suppress  any  opposition  to  this  arrangement,  imprisoned 
her  stepson  Karl.  But  the  Burgundians  immediately  revolted, 
elected  one  of  their  chiefs,  Raginfried,  to  the  office  of  royal  steward, 
and  defeated  the  Franks  in  a  battle  in  which  Theudowald  was 
slain.  Karl,  having  escaped  from  prison,  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  affairs,  supported  by  a  majority  of  the  German  Franks.  He  was 
a  man  of  strong  personal  influence,  and  inspired  his  followers  with 
enthusiasm  and  faith ;  but  his  chances  seemed  very  desperate.  His 
stepmother,  Plektrude,  opposed  him;  the  Burgundians  and  French 
Franks,  led  by  Raginfried,  were  marching  against  him,  and  Radbod, 
Duke  of  Friesland,  invaded  the  territory  which  he  was  bound  by 
his  office  to  defend. 

Karl  had  the  choice  of  three  enemies,  and  he  took  the  one 
which  seemed  most  dangerous.  He  attacked  Radbod,  but  was 
forced  to  fall  back,  and  this  repulse  emboldened  the  Saxons  to  make 
a  foray  into  the  land  of  the  Hessians,  as  the  old  Germanic  tribe  of 


MAYORS     OF     THE     PALACE  71 

714-719 

the  Chatti  were  now  called.  Radbod  advanced  to  Cologne,  which 
was  held  by  Plektrude  and  her  followers ;  at  the  same  time  Ragin- 
fried  approached  from  the  west,  and  the  city  was  thus  besieged  by 
two  separate  armies,  hostile  to  each  other,  yet  both  having  the  same 
end  in  view.  Between  the  two,  Karl  managed  to  escape,  and 
retreated  to  the  forest  of  Ardennes,  where  he  set  about  reconstruct- 
ing his  shattered  army. 

Cologne  was  too  strong  to  be  assailed,  and  Plektrude,  who  pos- 
sessed large  treasures,  soon  succeeded  in  buying  off  Radbod  and 
Raginfried.  The  latter,  on  his  return  to  France,  came  into  col- 
lision with  Karl,  who,  though  repelled  at  first,  finally  drove  him  in 
confusion  to  the  walls  of  Paris.  Karl  then  suddenly  wheeled  about 
and  marched  against  Cologne,  which  fell  into  his  hands :  Plektrude, 
leaving  her  wealth  as  his  booty,  fled  to  Bavaria.  This  victory 
secured  to  Karl  the  stewardship  over  Germany,  but  a  king  was 
wanting  to  make  the  forms  of  royalty  complete.  The  direct  Mero- 
vingian line  had  run  out,  and  Raginfried  had  been  obliged  to  take 
a  monk,  an  offshoot  of  the  family,  and  place  him  on  the  throne, 
under  the  name  of  Chilperic  II.  Karl,  after  a  little  search,  dis- 
covered another  Merovingian,  whom  he  installed  in  the  German 
half  of  the  kingdom,  as  Clotar  III.  That  done,  he  attacked  the 
invading  Saxons,  defeated  and  drove  them  beyond  the  Weser  River. 

He  was  now  free  to  meet  the  rebellious  Franks  of  France, 
who  in  the  meantime  had  strengthened  themselves  by  offering  to 
Duke  Eudo  of  Aquitaine  the  acknowledgment  of  his  independent 
sovereignty  in  return  for  his  support.  A  decisive  battle  was  fought 
in  the  year  719,  and  Karl  was  again  victorious.  The  nominal  king, 
Chilperic  II.,  Raginfried,  and  Duke  Eudo  fled  into  the  south  of 
France.  Karl  began  negotiations  with  the  latter  for  the  delivery 
of  the  fugitive  king;  but  just  at  this  time  his  own  puppet,  Clotar 
III.,  happened  to  die,  and,  as  there  was  no  other  Merovingian  left, 
the  pretense  upon  which  his  stewardship  was  based  obliged  him  to 
recognize  Chilperic  II.  Raginfried  resigned  his  office,  and  Karl 
was  at  last  nominal  steward,  and  actual  monarch,  of  the  kingdom  of 
the  Franks. 

His  first  movement  was  to  deliver  Germany  from  its  invaders, 
and  reestablished  the  dependency  of  its  native  dukes.  The  death  of 
the  fierce  Radbod  enabled  him  to  reconquer  western  Friesland ;  the 
Saxons  were  then  driven  back  and  firmly  held  within  their  original 
boundaries,  and  finally  the  Alemanni  and  Bavarians  were  compelled 


72  GERMANY 

719-731 

to  make  a  formal  acknowledgment  of  the  Prankish  rule.  As  re- 
gards Thuringia,  which  seems  to  have  remained  a  dukedom,  the 
chronicles  of  the  time  give  us  little  information.  It  is  probable, 
however,  that  the  invasions  of  the  Saxons  on  the  north  and  the 
Slavonic  tribes  on  the  east  gave  the  people  of  central  Germany  no 
opportunity  to  resist  the  authority  of  the  Franks.  The  work  of 
conversion,  encouraged  by  Pippin  of  Heristal  as  a  political  measure, 
was  still  continued  by  the  zeal  of  the  Irish  and  Anglo-Saxon  mis- 
sionaries, and  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century  it  received  a 
powerful  impulse  from  a  new  apostle,  a  man  of  singular  ability  and 
courage. 

He  was  a  Saxon  of  England,  bom  in  Devonshire  in  the  year 
680,  and  Winifred  by  name.  Educated  in  a  monastery  at  a  time 
when  the  struggle  between  Christianity  and  the  old  Germanic  faith 
was  at  its  height,  he  resolved  to  devote  his  life  to  missionary  labors. 
He  first  went  to  Friesland,  during  the  reign  of  Radbod,  and  spent 
three  years  in  a  vain  attempt  to  convert  the  people.  Then  he  visited 
Rome,  offered  his  services  to  the  Pope,  and  was  commissioned  to 
undertake  the  work  of  Christianizing  central  Germany.  On  reach- 
ing the  field  of  his  labors  he  manifested  such  zeal  and  intelligence 
that  he  soon  became  the  leader  and  director  of  the  missionary  en- 
terprise. It  is  related  that  at  Geismar,  in  the  land  of  the  Hessians, 
he  cut  down  with  his  own  hands  an  aged  oak  tree  sacred  to  the 
god  Thor.  This  and  other  similar  acts  inspired  the  people  with 
such  awe  that  they  began  to  believe  that  their  old  gods  were  either 
dead  or  helpless,  and  they  submissively  accepted  the  new  faith  with- 
out understanding  its  character,  or  following  it  otherwise  than  in 
observing  the  external  forms  of  worship. 

On  a  second  visit  to  Rome,  Winifred  was  appointed  by  the 
Pope  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  and  ordered  to  take,  thenceforth,  the 
name  of  Boniface  (Benefactor),  by  which  he  is  known  in  history. 
He  was  confirmed  in  this  office  by  Karl,  to  whom  he  had  rendered 
valuable  political  services  by  the  conversion  of  the  Thuringians, 
and  who  had  a  genuine  respect  for  his  lofty  and  unselfish  character. 
The  spot  where  he  built  the  first  Christian  church  in  central  Ger- 
many, about  twelve  miles  from  Gotha,  at  the  foot  of  the  Thuringian 
Mountains,  is  now  marked  by  a  colossal  candlestick  of  granite,  sur- 
mounted by  a  golden  flame. 

After  Karl  had  been  for  several  years  actively  employed  in 
regulating  the  affairs  of  his  great  realm,  and  especially,  with  the  aid 


MAYORS     OF     THE     PALACE  73 

731-732 

of  Bishop  Boniface,  in  establishing  an  authority  in  Germany  equal 
to  that  he  possessed  in  France,  he  had  every  prospect  of  a  powerful 
and  peaceful  rule.  But  suddenly  a  new  danger  threatened  not  only 
the  Franks,  but  all  Europe.  The  Saracens,  crossing  from  Africa, 
defeated  the  Visigoths  and  slew  Roderick,  their  king,  in  the  year 
711.  Gradually  possessing  themselves  of  all  Spain,  they  next  col- 
lected a  tremendous  army,  and  in  731,  under  the  command  of  Ab- 
derrahman,  viceroy  of  the  caliph  of  Damascus,  set  out  for  the  con- 
quest of  France.  Thus  the  new  Christian  faith  of  Europe,  still 
engaged  in  quelling  the  strength  of  the  ancient  paganism  in  Ger- 
many, was  suddenly  called  upon  to  meet,  in  the  heart  of  France 
itself,  the  newer  faith  of  Mohammed,  which  had  determined  to 
subdue  the  world. 

Not  only  France,  but  the  Eastern  Empire,  Italy,  and  England 
looked  to  Karl  in  this  emergency.  The  Saracens  crossed  the  Pyre- 
nees with  350,000  warriors,  accompanied  by  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, as  if  they  were  sure  of  victory  and  meant  to  possess  the  land. 
Karl  called  the  military  strength  of  the  whole  broad  kingdom  into 
the  field,  collected  an  army  nearly  equal  in  numbers,  and,  finally,  in 
October,  732,  the  two  hosts  stood  face  to  face,  near  the  city  of 
Poitiers.  It  was  a  struggle  almost  as  grand,  and  fraught  with  as 
important  consequences  to  the  world,  as  that  of  Aetius  and  Attila, 
nearly  three  hundred  years  before.  Six  days  were  spent  in  prepa- 
rations, and  on  the  seventh  the  battle  began.  The  Saracens  attacked 
with  that  daring  and  impetuosity  which  had  gained  them  so  many 
victories ;  but,  as  the  old  chronicle  says,  "  the  Franks,  with  their 
strong  hearts  and  powerful  bodies,  stood  like  a  wall,  and  hewed 
down  the  Arabs  with  iron  hands."  When  night  fell  200,000  dead 
and  wounded  lay  upon  the  field.  Karl  made  preparations  for  re- 
suming the  battle  on  the  following  morning,  but  he  found  no  en- 
emy. The  Saracens  had  retired  during  the  night,  leaving  their 
camps  and  stores  behind  them,  and  their  leader,  Abderrahman, 
among  the  slain.  This  was  the  first  great  check  the  cause  of  Islam 
received,  after  a  series  of  victories  more  wonderful  than  those  of 
Rome.  From  that  day  the  people  bestowed  upon  Karl  the  surname 
of  Martel,  the  Hammer,  and  as  Charles  Martel  he  is  best  known  in 
history. 

He  was  not  able  to  follow  up  his  advantage  immediately,  for 
the  possibility  of  his  defeat  by  the  Saracens  had  emboldened  his 
enemies  at  home  and  abroad  to  rise  against  his  authority.      The 


74  GERMANY 

732-741 

Frisians,  under  Poppo,  their  new  duke,  made  another  invasion ;  the 
Saxons  followed  their  example;  the  Burgundians  attempted  a 
rebellion,  and  the  sons  of  Duke  Eudo  of  Aquitaine,  imitating  the 
example  of  their  ancestors,  the  Merovingian  kings,  began  to  quarrel 
about  the  succession.  While  Karl  Martel,  as  we  must  now  call 
him,  was  engaged  in  suppressing  all  these  troubles,  the  Saracens, 
with  the  aid  of  the  malcontent  Burgundians,  occupied  all  the  terri- 
tory bordering  the  Mediterranean,  on  both  sides  of  the  Rhone. 
Karl  was  not  free  to  march  against  them  until  737,  when  he  made 
his  appearance  with  a  large  army,  retook  Avignon,  Aries,  and 
Nismes,  and  left  the  Saracens  in  possession  only  of  Narbonnc,  which 
was  too  strongly  fortified  to  be  taken  by  assault. 

Karl  Martel  was  recalled  to  the  opposite  end  of  the  kingdom 
by  a  fresh  invasion  of  the  Saxons.  When  this  had  been  reptlled 
and  the  northern  frontier  in  Germany  strengthened  against  the  hos- 
tile race,  the  Burgundian  nobles  in  Provence  sought  a  fresh  alliance 
with  the  Saracens,  and  compelled  him  to  return  instantly  from  the 
Weser  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  He  suppressed  the  re- 
bellion, but  was  obliged  to  leave  the  Saracens  in  possession  of  a 
part  of  the  coast,  between  the  Rhone  and  the  Pyrenees.  During  his 
stay  in  the  south  of  France  the  Pope,  Gregory  II.,  entreated  him  to 
come  to  Italy  and  relieve  Rome  from  the  oppression  of  Luitprand, 
king  of  the  Longobards.  He  did  not  accept  the  invitation,  however, 
but  it  appears  that,  as  mediator,  he  assisted  in  concluding  a  treaty 
between  the  Pope  and  king,  which  arranged  their  differences  for 
a  time. 

Worn  out  by  his  life  of  marches  and  battles,  Karl  Martel  be- 
came prematurely  old,  and  died  in  741,  at  the  age  of  fifty,  after  a 
reign  of  twenty-seven  years.  He  inherited  the  activity,  the  ability, 
and  also  the  easy  principles  of  his  father,  Pippin  of  Heristal.  But 
his  authority  was  greatly  increased,  and  he  used  it  to  lessen  the 
remnant  of  their  original  freedom  which  the  people  still  retained. 
The  free  Germanic  Franks  were  accustomed  to  meet  every  year,  in 
the  month  of  March  (as  on  the  Champ  de  Mars,  or  March-field,  at 
Paris),  and  discuss  all  national  matters.  In  the  time  of  Clovis  the 
royal  dependents  were  added  to  the  free  citizens  and  allowed  an 
equal  voice,  which  threw  an  additional  power  into  the  hands  of  the 
monarch.  Karl  Martel  convoked  the  national  assembly,  declared 
war  or  made  peace,  without  asking  the  people's  consent ;  while,  by 
adding  the  priesthood  and  the  nobles,  with  their  dependents,  to  the 


MAYORS     OF     THE     PALACE  75 

741-747 

number  of  those  entitled  to  vote,  he  broke  down  the  ancient  power 
of  the  state  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  more  absolute  system. 

Shortly  before  his  death  Karl  Martel  summoned  a  council  of 
the  princes  and  nobles  of  his  realm  and  obtained  their  consent  that 
his  eldest  son,  Karloman,  should  succeed  him  as  Majordomus  in 
Germany,  and  his  second  son.  Pippin,  surnamed  the  Short,  as 
Majordomus  in  France  and  Burgundy.  The  Merovingian  throne 
had  already  been  vacant  for  four  years,  but  the  monarch  had  be- 
come so  insignificant  that  this  circumstance  was  scarcely  noticed. 
On  his  death-bed,  however,  Karl  Martel  was  persuaded  by  Swan- 
hilde,  one  of  his  wives,  to  bequeath  a  part  of  his  dominions  to  her 
son,  Grifo.  This  gave  rise  to  great  discontent  among  the  people, 
and  furnished  the  subject  dukes  of  Bavaria,  Alemannia,  and  Aqui- 
taine  with  another  opportunity  for  endeavoring  to  regain  their 
lost  independence. 

Karloman  and  Pippin,  in  order  to  strengthen  their  cause, 
sought  for  a  descendant  of  the  Merovingian  line,  and,  having  found 
him,  they  proclaimed  him  king,  under  the  name  of  Childeric  III. 
This  step  secured  to  them  the  allegiance  of  the  Franks,  but  the  con- 
flict with  the  refractory  dukedoms  lasted  several  years.  Battles 
were  fought  on  the  Loire,  on  the  Lech,  in  Bavaria,  and  then  again 
on  the  Saxon  frontier;  finally  Aquitaine  was  subdued,  Alemannia 
lost  its  duke  and  became  a  Frankish  province,  and  Bavaria  agreed  to 
a  truce.  In  this  struggle  Karloman  and  Pippin  received  important 
support  from  Boniface,  a  part  of  whose  aim  it  was  to  bring  all  the 
Christian  communities  to  acknowledge  the  Pope  of  Rome  as  the 
sole  head  of  the  church.  They  gave  him  their  support  in  return, 
and  thus  the  Franks  were  drawn  into  closer  relations  with  the 
ecclesiastical  power. 

In  the  year  747  Karloman  resigned  his  power,  went  to  Rome, 
and  was  made  a  monk  by  Pope  Zacharias.  Soon  afterward  Grifo, 
the  son  of  Karl  Martel  and  Swanhilde,  made  a  second  attempt  to 
conquer  his  rights,  with  the  aid  of  the  Saxons.  Pippin  the  Short 
allied  himself  with  the  Wends,  a  Slavonic  race  settled  in  Prussia, 
and  ravaged  the  Saxon  land,  forcing  a  part  of  the  inhabitants,  at 
the  point  of  the  sword,  to  be  baptized  as  Christians.  Grifo  fled  to 
Bavaria,  where  the  duke,  Tassilo,  espoused  his  cause,  but  Pippin 
the  Short  followed  close  upon  his  heels  with  so  strong  a  force  that 
resistance  was  no  longer  possible.  A  treaty  was  made  whereby 
Grifo  was  consigned  to  private  life,  the  hereditary  rights  of  the 


76  GERMANY 

747-754 

Bavarian  dukes  recognized  by  the  Franks,  and  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Franks  accepted  by  the  Bavarians. 

Pippin  the  Short  had  found,  through  his  own  experience  as 
well  as  that  of  his  ancestors,  that  the  pretense  of  a  Merovingian 
king  only  worked  confusion  in  the  realm  of  the  Franks,  since 
it  furnished  to  the  subordinate  races  and  principalities  a  constant 
pretext  for  revolt.  When,  therefore,  Pope  Zacharias  found  him- 
self threatened  by  Aistulf,  the  successor  of  Luitprand  as  king  of  the 
Longobards,  and  sent  an  embassy  to  Pippin  the  Short,  appealing 
for  his  assistance,  the  latter  returned  to  him  this  question :  "  Does 
the  kingdom  belong  to  him  who  exercises  the  power,  without  the 
name,  or  to  him  who  bears  the  name,  without  possessing  the 
power?"  The  answer  was  what  he  expected;  a  general  assembly 
was  called  together  in  752,  Pippin  was  anointed  king  by  the  Arch- 
bishop Boniface,  then  lifted  on  a  shield,  according  to  the  ancient 
custom,  and  accepted  by  the  nobles  and  people.  The  shadowy 
Merovingian  king,  Childeric  III.,  was  shorn  of  his  long  hair,  the 
sig^  of  royalty,  and  sent  into  a  monastery,  where  he  disappeared 
from  the  world.  Pippin  now  possessed  sole  and  unlimited  sway 
over  the  kingdom  of  the  Franks,  and  named  himself  "  king  by  the 
Grace  of  God," — an  example  which  has  been  followed  by  most 
monarchs  down  to  our  day.  On  the  other  hand,  the  decision  of 
Zacharias  was  a  great  step  gained  by  the  Papal  power,  which 
thenceforth  began  to  exalt  its  prerogatives  over  those  of  the  rulers 
of  nations. 

Pippin's  first  duty,  as  king,  was  to  repel  a  new  invasion  of  the 
Saxons.  His  power  was  so  much  increased  by  his  title  that  he 
was  able,  at  once,  to  lead  against  them  such  a  force  that  they  were 
compelled  to  pay  a  tribute  of  three  hundred  horses  annually,  and  to 
allow  Christian  missionaries  to  reside  among  them.  The  latter 
condition  was  undoubtedly  the  suggestion  of  Boniface,  who  de- 
termined to  carry  the  cross  to  the  North  Sea,  and  complete  the  con- 
version of  Germany.  He  himself  undertook  a  mission  to  Fries- 
land,  where  he  had  failed  as  a  young  monk,  and  there,  in  755,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-five,  he  was  slain  by  the  fierce  pagans.  He  died  like 
a  martyr,  refusing  to  defend  himself,  and  was  enrolled  among  the 
number  of  saints. 

In  the  year  754  Pope  Stephen  II.,  the  successor  of  Zacharias, 
appeared  in  France  as  a  personal  supplicant  for  the  aid  of  King 
Pippin.     Aistulf,  the  Longobard  king,  who  had  driven  the  Byzan- 


MAYORS     OF     THE     PALACE  77 

754-768 

tines  out  of  the  Exarchy  of  Ravenna,  was  marchingf  against  Rome, 
which  still  nominally  belonged  to  the  Eastern  Empire.  To  make 
his  entreaty  more  acceptable,  the  Pope  bestowed  on  Pippin  the  title 
of  "  Patrician  of  Rome,"  and  solemnly  crowned  him  and  his 
young  sons,  Karl  and  Karloman,  in  the  chapel  of  St.  Denis,  near 
Paris.  At  the  same  time  he  issued  a  ban  of  excommunication 
against  all  persons  who  should  support  a  monarch  belonging  to  any 
other  than  the  reigning  dynasty. 

Pippin  first  endeavored  to  negotiate  with  Aistulf,  but  failing 
therein,  he  marched  into  Italy,  defeated  the  Longobards  in  several 
battles,  and  besieged  the  king  in  Pavia,  his  capital.  Aistulf  was 
compelled  to  promise  that  he  would  give  up  the  Exarchy  and  leave 
the  Pope  in  peace ;  but  no  sooner  had  Pippin  returned  to  France  than 
he  violated  all  his  promises.  On  the  renewed  appeals  of  the  Pope, 
Pippin  came  to  Italy  a  second  time,  again  defeated  the  Longobards, 
and  forced  Aistulf  not  only  to  fulfill  his  former  promises,  but  also 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  second  war.  He  remained  in  Italy  until 
the  conditions  were  fulfilled,  and  his  son  Karl  (Charlemagne),  then 
fourteen  years  old,  spent  some  time  in  Rome. 

The  Byzantine  emperor  demanded  that  the  cities  of  the  Ex- 
archy should  be  given  back  to  him,  but  Pippin  transferred  them  to 
the  Pope,  who  already  exercised  a  temporal  power  in  Rome.  They 
were  held  by  the  latter,  for  some  time  afterward,  in  the  name  of  the 
Eastern  Empire.  The  worldly  sovereignty  of  the  Popes  grew 
gradually  from  this  basis,  but  was  not  yet  recognized,  or  even 
claimed.  Pippin,  nevertheless,  greatly  strengthened  the  influence 
of  the  church  by  gifts  of  land,  by  increasing  the  privileges  of  the 
priesthood,  and  by  allowing  the  ecclesiastical  synods,  in  many  cases, 
to  interfere  in  matters  of  civil  government. 

The  only  other  events  of  his  reign  were  another  expedition 
aguinst  the  unsubdued  Saxons  and  the  expulsion  of  the  Saracens 
from  the  territory  they  held  between  Narbonne  and  the  Pyrenees. 
He  died  in  768,  king  instead  of  merely  majordomus,  leaving  to  his 
sons,  Karl  and  Karloman,  a  greater,  stronger,  and  better  organized 
dominion  than  Europe  had  seen  since  the  downfall  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 


Chapter  XI 

THE   REIGN   OF   CHARLEMAGNE.     768-814  A.  D. 

WHEN  King  Pippin  the  Short  felt  that  his  end  was  near 
he  called  an  assembly  of  dukes,  nobles  and  priests, 
which  was  held  at  St.  Denis,  for  the  purpose  of  install- 
ing his  sons,  Karl  and  Karloman,  as  his  successors.  As  he  had 
observed  how  rapidly  the  French  and  German  halves  of  his  empire 
were  separating  themselves  from  each  other,  in  language,  habits, 
and  national  character,  he  determined  to  change  the  former  bound- 
ary between  "  Austrasia  "  and  "  Neustria,"  which  ran  nearly  north 
and  south,  and  to  substitute  an  arbitrary  line  running  east  and  west. 
This  division  was  accepted  by  the  assembly,  but  its  unpractical  char- 
acter was  manifested  as  soon  as  Karl  and  Karloman  began  to  reign. 
There  was  nothing  but  trouble  for  three  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  the  latter  died,  leaving  Karl,  in  771,  sole  monarch  of  the 
Prankish  Empire. 

This  great  man,  who,  looking  backwards,  saw  not  his  equal  in 
history  until  he  beheld  Julius  Caesar,  now  began  his  splendid  single 
reign  of  forty-three  years.  We  must  henceforth  call  him  Charle- 
magne, the  French  form  of  the  Latin  Carolus  Magnus,  Karl  the 
Great,  since  by  that  name  he  is  known  in  all  English  history.  He 
was  at  this  time  twenty-nine  years  old,  and  in  the  pride  of  perfect 
strength  and  manly  beauty.  He  was  nearly  seven  feet  high,  ad- 
mirably proportioned,  and  so  developed  by  toil,  the  chase,  and  war- 
like exercises  that  few  men  of  his  time  equaled  him  in  muscular 
strength.  His  face  was  noble  and  commanding,  his  hair  blond  or 
light  brown,  and  his  eyes  a  clear,  sparkling  blue.  He  performed 
the  severest  duties  of  his  office  with  a  quiet  dignity  which  height- 
ened the  impression  of  his  intellectual  power;  he  was  terrible  and 
inflexible  in  crushing  all  who  attempted  to  interfere  with  his  work ; 
but  at  the  chase,  the  banquet,  or  in  the  circle  of  his  family  and 
friends  no  one  was  more  frank,  joyous,  and  kindly  than  he. 

His  dynasty  is  called  in  history,  after  him,  the  Carolingian,  al- 
though Pippin  of  Landen  was  its  founder.  The  name  of  Charle- 
magne is  extended  backwards  over  the  mayors  of  the  palace,  his 

T8 


CHARLEMAGNE  79 

771-774 

ancestors,  and  after  him  over  a  century  of  successors  who  gradually 
faded  out  like  the  Merovingian  line.  He  stands  alone,  midway  be- 
tween the  Roman  Empire  and  the  Middle  Ages,  as  the  one  supreme 
historical  landmark.  The  task  of  his  life  was  to  extend,  secure, 
regulate,  and  develop  the  power  of  a  great  empire,  much  of  which 
was  still  in  a  state  of  semibarbarism.  He  was  no  imitator  of  the 
Roman  emperors;  his  genius,  as  a  statesman,  lay  in  his  ability  to 
understand  that  new  forms  of  government  and  a  new  development 
of  civilization  had  become  necessary.  Like  all  strong  and  far-see- 
ing rulers,  he  was  despotic,  and  often  fiercely  cruel.  Those  who 
interfered  with  his  plans — even  the  members  of  his  own  family — 
were  relentlessly  sacrificed.  On  the  other  hand,  although  he 
strengthened  the  power  of  the  nobility,  he  never  neglected  the  pro- 
tection of  the  people ;  half  his  days  were  devoted  to  war,  yet  he  en- 
couraged learning,  literature,  and  the  arts,  and  while  he  crushed  the 
independence  of  the  races,  he  gave  them  a  higher  civilization  in  its 
stead. 

Charlemagne  first  marched  against  the  turbulent  Saxons,  but 
before  they  were  reduced  to  order  he  was  called  to  Italy  by  the 
appeal  of  Pope  Adrian  for  help  against  the  Longobards.  The  king 
of  the  latter,  Desiderius,  was  the  father  of  Hermingarde,  Charle- 
magne's second  wife,  whom  he  had  repudiated  and  sent  home  soon 
after  his  accession  to  the  throne.  Karloman's  widow  had  also 
claimed  the  protection  of  Desiderius,  and  she,  with  her  sons,  was 
living  at  the  latter's  court.  But  these  ties  had  no  weight  with 
Charlemagne;  he  collected  a  large  army  at  Geneva,  crossed  the 
Alps  by  the  pass  of  St.  Bernard,  conquered  all  northern  Italy,  and 
besieged  Desiderius  in  Pavia.  He  then  marched  to  Rome,  where 
Pope  Adrian  received  him  as  a  liberator.  A  procession  of  the 
clergy  and  people  went  forth  to  welcome  him,  chanting :  "  Blessed 
is  he  that  comes  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ! "  He  took  part  in  the 
ceremonies  of  Easter,  774,  which  were  celebrated  with  great  pomp 
in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Peter.  Over  the  grave  of  the  apostle  the 
Pope  and  the  Prankish  king  swore  mutual  devotion  and  fidelity.  A 
few  days  later  Charles  solemnly  ratified  the  donation  of  land  that 
Pippin  had  made  to  the  church,  and  caused  a  document  to  be  drawn 
up  in  three  copies  to  commemorate  the  occasion.  The  wording  of 
this  deed  has  come  down  to  us — in  a  changed  form,  indeed,  for  a 
later  clause  was  added  by  some  churchly  scribe  to  make  Charles's 
gift  seem  to  include  most  of  northern  Italy.    The  extravagance  of 


80 


GERMANY 


774-777 

the  claim  has  led  men  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  the  whole  docu- 
ment, but  recent  investigation  has  pointed  out  where  the  interpola- 
tion begins,  and  how,  originally  written  on  the  margin  of  the  manu- 
script, it  afterward  crept  into  the  text  of  the  famous  "  Donation  of 
Charlemagne." 

In  May  Pavia  fell  into  Charlemagne's  hands.  Desiderius  was 
sent  into  a  monastery,  the  widow  and  children  of  Karloman  disap- 
peared, and  the  kingdom  of  the  Longobards,  or  Lombards,  as  they 
are  called  henceforth,  was  annexed  to  the  empire  of  the  Franks.  The 
Lombard  power  was  declared  at  an  end,  and  Charlemagne  took  the 
title  of  "  King  of  the  Lombards  and  Patrician  of  the  Romans," 
thus  inaugurating  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  Italy.  The  people 
were  allowed  to  retain  both  their  laws  and  their  dukes,  or  local 
rulers,  but  in  spite  of  these  privileges  they  soon  rose  in  revolt 
against  their  conqueror.  Charlemagne  had  returned  to  finish  his 
work  with  the  Saxons,  when  in  776  this  revolt  called  him  back  to 
Italy,  The  movement  was  temporarily  suppressed,  and  he  hastened 
to  Germany  to  resume  his  interrupted  task. 

The  Saxons  were  the  only  remaining  German  people  who 
resisted  both  the  Prankish  rule  and  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 
They  held  all  of  what  is  now  Westphalia,  Hanover,  and  Brunswick, 
to  the  River  Elbe,  and  were  still  strong,  in  spite  of  their  constant 
and  wasting  wars.  During  his  first  campaign,  in  'j'j2,  Charle- 
magne had  overrun  Westphalia,  taken  possession  of  the  fortified 
camp  of  the  Saxons,  and  destroyed  the  "  Irminpillar,"  which  seems 
to  have  been  a  monument  erected  to  commemorate  the  defeat  of 
Varus  by  Hermann.  The  people  submitted,  and  promised  alle- 
giance; but  the  following  year,  aroused  by  the  appeals  of  their  duke 
or  chieftain,  Wittekind,  they  rebelled  in  a  body.  The  Frisians 
joined  them,  the  priests  and  missionaries  were  slaughtered  or  ex- 
pelled, and  all  the  former  Saxon  territory,  nearly  to  the  Rhine,  was 
retaken  by  Wittekind. 

Charlemagne  collected  a  large  army  and  renewed  the  war  in 
775.  He  pressed  forward  as  far  as  the  River  Weser,  when,  care- 
lessly dividing  his  forces,  one-half  of  them  were  cut  to  pieces,  and 
he  was  obliged  to  retreat.  His  second  expedition  to  Italy,  at  this 
time,  was  made  with  all  possible  haste,  and  a  new  army  was  ready 
on  his  return.  Westphalia  was  now  wasted  with  fire  and  sword, 
and  the  people  generally  submitted,  although  they  were  compelled 
to  be  baptized  as  Christians.     In  May,  yj^y  Charlemagne  held  an 


CHARLEMAGNE  81 

777-782 

assembly  of  the  people  at  Paderborn;  nearly  all  the  Saxon  nobles 
attended  and  swore  fealty  to  him,  while  many  of  them  submitted 
to  the  rite  of  baptism. 

At  this  assembly  suddenly  appeared  a  deputation  of  Saracen 
princes  from  Spain,  who  sought  Charlemagne's  help  against  the 
tyranny  of  the  caliph  of  Cordova.  He  was  induced  by  religious  or 
ambitious  motives  to  consent,  neglecting  for  the  time  the  great 
work  he  had  undertaken  toward  reducing  the  Saxons  to  submission. 
In  the  summer  of  778  he  crossed  the  Pyrenees,  took  the  cities  of 
Pampeluna  and  Saragossa,  and  delivered  all  Spain  north  of  the 
Ebro  River  from  the  hands  of  the  Saracen  caliph.  This  territory 
was  attached  to  the  Prankish  kingdom  as  the  Spanish  Mark,  or 
"  border  district " ;  it  was  inhabited  both  by  Saracens  and  Franks, 
who  dwelt  side  by  side  and  became  more  or  less  united  in  language, 
habits,  and  manners. 

As  he  was  returning  to  France  Charlemagne  was  attacked  by  a 
large  force  of  the  native  Basques,  in  the  pass  of  Roncesvalles,  in 
the  Pyrenees.  His  warriors,  taken  by  surprise  in  the  narrow 
ravine  and  crushed  by  rocks  rolled  down  upon  them  from  above, 
could  make  little  resistance,  and  the  rear  column,  with  all  the 
plunder  gathered  in  Spain,  fell  into  the  enemy's  hands.  Here  was 
slain  the  famous  paladin,  Roland,  the  Count  of  Brittany,  who  be- 
came the  theme  of  poets  down  to  the  time  of  Ariosto.  Charle- 
magne was  so  infuriated  by  his  defeat  that  he  hanged  the  Duke 
of  Aquitaine,  on  the  charge  of  treachery,  because  his  territory  in- 
cluded a  part  of  the  lands  of  the  Basques. 

Upon  the  heels  of  this  disaster  came  the  news  that  the  Saxons 
had  again  risen,  under  the  lead  of  Wittekind,  destroyed  their 
churches,  murdered  the  priests,  and  carried  fire  and  sword  to  the 
very  walls  of  Cologne  and  Coblentz.  Charlemagne  sent  his  best 
troops,  by  forced  marches,  in  advance  of  his  coming,  but  he  was 
not  able  to  take  the  field  until  the  following  spring.  During  779 
and  a  part  of  780,  after  much  labor  and  many  battles,  he  seemed 
to  have  subdued  the  stubborn  race,  most  of  whom  accepted 
Christian  baptism  for  the  third  time.  Charlemagne  thereupon  went 
to  Italy  once  more,  in  order  to  restore  order  among  the  Lombards, 
whose  local  chiefs  were  becoming  restless  in  his  absence.  His  two 
young  sons.  Pippin  and  Ludwig,  were  crowned  by  Pope  Adrian 
as  kings  of  Lombardy  (which  then  embraced  the  greater  part  of 
northern  and  central  Italy)  and  Aquitaine. 


8S  GERMANY 

782-787 

After  his  return  to  Germany  he  convoked  a  parliament,  or  popu- 
lar assembly,  at  Paderborn,  in  782,  partly  in  order  to  give  the 
Saxons  a  stronger  impression  of  the  power  of  the  empire.  The 
people  seemed  quiet,  and  he  was  deceived  by  their  bearing;  for, 
after  he  had  left  them  to  return  to  the  Rhine,  they  rose  again, 
headed  by  Wittekind,  who  had  been  for  some  years  a  fugitive  in 
Denmark.  Three  of  Charlemagne's  chief  officials,  who  immediately 
hastened  to  the  scene  of  trouble  with  such  troops  as  they  could 
collect,  met  Wittekind  in  the  Teutoburger  Forest,  not  far  from  the 
field  where  Varus  and  his  legions  were  destroyed.  A  similar  fate 
awaited  them;  the  Prankish  army  was  so  completely  cut  to  pieces 
that  but  few  escaped  to  tell  the  tale. 

Charlemagne  marched  immediately  into  the  Saxon  land.  The 
rebels  dispersed  at  his  approach  and  Wittekind  again  became  a 
fugitive.  The  Saxon  nobles  humbly  renewed  their  submission  and 
tried  to  throw  the  whole  responsibility  of  the  rebellion  upon  Witte- 
kind. Charlemange  was  not  satisfied;  he  had  been  mortified  in 
his  pride  as  a  monarch,  and  for  once  he  cast  aside  his  usual  modera- 
tion and  prudence.  He  demanded  that  4500  Saxons,  no  doubt  the 
most  prominent  among  the  people,  should  be  given  up  to  him  as 
hostages.  When  he  once  had  them  in  his  power  he  had  them  all 
massacred  at  Verden  as  a  punishment  to  the  Saxons  for  their  past 
faithlessness  and  as  a  lesson  to  them  for  the  future.  This  deed 
of  blood,  instead  of  intimidating  the  Saxons,  provoked  them  to 
fury.  They  arose  as  one  man,  and  in  783  defeated  Charlemagne 
near  Detmold.  He  retreated  to  Paderborn,  received  reinforcements, 
and  was  enabled  to  venture  a  second  battle,  in  which  he  was  vic- 
torious. He  remained  for  two  years  longer  in  Thuringia  and 
Saxony,  during  whicb  time  he  undertook  a  winter  campaign,  for 
which  the  people  were  not  prepared.  By  the  summer  of  785  the 
Saxons,  finding  their  homes  destroyed  and  themselves  rapidly 
diminishing  in  numbers,  yielded  to  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror. 
Wittekind,  who,  the  legend  says,  had  stolen  in  disguise  into  Charle- 
magne's camp,  was  so  impressed  by  the  bearing  of  the  king  and  the 
pomp  of  the  religious  services  that  he  also  submitted  and  received 
baptism. 

Charlemagne  was  now  free  to  make  another  journey  to  Italy, 
where  he  suppressed  some  fresh  troubles  among  the  Lombards,  and 
forced  Aragis,  the  Duke  of  Benevento,  to  render  his  submission. 
Then,  for  the  first  time,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  Bavarians, 


CHARLEMAGNE  88 

787-796 

whose  duke,  Tassilo,  had  preserved  an  armed  neutrality  during 
the  previous  wars,  but  was  suspected  of  secretly  conspiring  with 
the  Lombards,  Byzantines,  and  even  the  Avars,  for  help  to  enable 
him  to  throw  off  the  Prankish  yoke.  At  a  general  diet  of  the  whole 
empire,  held  in  Worms  in  787,  Tassilo  did  not  appear,  and  Charle- 
magne made  this  a  pretext  for  invading  Bavaria. 

Three  armies,  in  Italy,  Suabia,  and  Thuringia,  were  set  in  mo- 
tion at  the  same  time,  and  resistance  appeared  so  hopeless  that 
Tassilo  surrendered  at  once.  Charlemagne  pardoned  him  at  first, 
under  stipulations  of  stricter  dependence,  but  he  was  convicted  of 
conspiracy  at  a  diet  held  the  following  year,  when  he  and  his  sons 
were  found  guilty  and  sent  into  a  monastery.  His  dynasty  came 
to  an  end,  and  Bavaria  was  portioned  out  among  a  number  of 
Prankish  counts,  the  people,  nevertheless,  being  allowed  to  retain 
their  own  political  institutions. 

The  incorporation  of  Bavaria  with  the  Prankish  Empire 
brought  a  new  task  to  Charlemagne.  The  Avars,  who  had  gradually 
extended  their  rule  westward  nearly  to  the  Adriatic,  were  strong  and 
dangerous  neighbors.  In  791  he  entered  their  territory  and  laid  it 
waste,  as  far  as  the  River  Raab ;  then,  having  lost  all  his  horses  on 
the  march,  he  was  obliged  to  return.  At  home  a  new  trouble 
awaited  him.  His  son.  Pippin,  whom  he  had  installed  as  king  of 
Lombardy,  was  discovered  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  conspiracy  to 
usurp  his  own  throne.  Pippin  was  terribly  flogged,  and  then  sent 
into  a  monastery  for  the  rest  of  his  days;  his  fellow-conspirators 
were  executed. 

When  Charlemagne  applied  his  system  of  military  conscrip- 
tion to  the  Saxons,  to  recruit  his  army  before  renewing  the  war  with 
the  Avars,  they  rose  once  more  in  rebellion,  slew  his  agents,  burned 
the  churches,  and  drove  out  the  priests.  Charlemagne  was  thus 
obliged  to  subdue  them  and  to  fight  the  Avars  at  the  same  time.  The 
double  war  lasted  until  796,  when  the  residence  of  the  Avar  khan, 
with  the  intrenched  "  ring  "  or  fort,  containing  all  the  treasures 
amassed  by  the  tribe  during  the  raids  of  two  hundred  years,  was  cap- 
tured. All  the  country  as  far  eastward  as  the  rivers  Theiss  and  Raab 
was  wasted  and  almost  depopulated.  The  remnant  of  the  Avars  ac- 
knowledged themselves  Prankish  subjects,  but  for  greater  security 
Charlemagne  established  Bavarian  colonies  in  the  fertile  land  along 
the  Danube.  The  latter  formed  a  province,  called  the  East  Mark, 
which  became  famous  later  as  the  duchy  of  Austria. 


84  GERMANY 

796-800 

The  Saxons  were  subjected — or  seemed  to  be — about  the  same 
time.  Many  of  the  people  retreated  into  Holstein,  which  was  then 
called  North  Albingia;  but  Charlemagne  allied  himself  with  a 
branch  of  the  Slavonic  Wends,  defeated  them  there,  and  took  pos- 
session of  their  territory.  He  built  fortresses  at  Halle,  Magdeburg, 
and  Biichen,  near  Hamburg,  colonized  ten  thousand  Saxons  among 
the  Franks,  and  replaced  them  by  an  equal  number  of  the  latter. 
Then  he  established  Christianity  for  the  fifth  time,  by  ordering  that 
all  who  failed  to  present  themselves  for  baptism  should  be  put  to 
death.  The  indomitable  spirit  of  the  people  still  led  to  occasional 
outbreaks,  but  these  became  weaker  and  weaker,  and  finally  ceased 
as  the  new  faith  struck  deeper  root. 

In  the  year  799  Pope  Leo  HI.  suddenly  appeared  in  Charle- 
magne's camp  at  Paderborn,  a  fugitive  from  a  conspiracy  of  the 
Roman  nobles,  by  which  his  life  was  threatened.  He  was  received 
with  all  possible  honors,  and  after  some  time  spent  in  secret  coun- 
cils was  sent  back  to  Rome  with  a  strong  escort.  In  the  autumn 
of  the  following  year  Charlemagne  followed  him.  A  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  assembly  was  held  at  Rome,  which  investigated  the 
awful  charges  against  the  Pope  and  pronounced  him  innocent. 
Meanwhile  Christmas  Day  had  come,  and  Charlemagne  attended 
the  service  in  St.  Peter's.  After  the  mass  he  knelt  to  pray  at  the 
tomb  of  the  apostle.  As  he  arose  from  his  knees  the  Pope  stepped 
forward  and  placed  a  crown  upon  his  head,  while  the  great  throng 
assembled  there  burst  forth  into  a  cry:  "  Life  and  victory  to  Carolo 
Augusto,  crowned  by  God,  the  great,  the  peace-bringing  Emperor 
of  the  Romans! " 

By  this  step  the  Pope  rendered  himself  forever  independent  of 
his  nominal  subjection  to  the  Byzantine  emperors.  For  Charle- 
magne, the  new  dignity,  gave  his  rule  its  full  and  final  authority. 
The  people,  in  whose  traditions  the  grandeur  of  the  old  Roman  Em- 
pire was  still  kept  alive,  now  beheld  it  renewed  in  their  ruler  and 
themselves.  Charlemagne  stood  at  the  head  of  an  empire  which  was 
to  include  all  Christendom,  and  to  imitate,  in  its  civil  organization, 
the  spiritual  rule  of  the  church.  On  the  one  side  were  kingdoms, 
duchies,  countships,  and  the  communities  of  the  people,  all  subject  to 
him ;  on  the  other  side,  bishoprics,  monasteries  and  their  dependen- 
cies, churches  and  individual  souls,  subject  to  the  Pope.  The  latter 
acknowledged  the  emperor  as  his  temporal  sovereign ;  the  emperor 
acknowledged  the  Pope  as  his  spiritual  sovereign.    The  idea  was 


CHARLEMAGNE  86 

800-806 

grand,  and  at  that  time  did  not  seem  impossible  to  fulfill ;  but  the 
further  course  of  history  shows  how  hostile  the  two  principles  may 
become  when  they  both  want  the  same  power. 

The  Greek  emperors  at  Constantinople  were  not  strong  enough 
to  protest  against  this  bestowal  of  a  dignity  which  th^y  claimed  for 
themselves.  A  long  series  of  negotiations  followed,  the  result  of 
which  was  that  the  Emperor  Nicephorus  acknowledged  Charle- 
magne's title.  The  latter,  immediately  after  his  coronation  in 
Rome,  drew  up  a  new  oath  of  allegiance,  which  he  required  to  be 
taken  by  the  whole  male  population  of  the  empire.  About  this 
time  he  entered  into  friendly  relations  with  the  famous  caliph, 
Haroun  Al  Raschid  of  Bagdad  (of  the  "  Arabian  Nights  ").  They 
sent  embassies  bearing  magnificent  presents  to  each  other's  courts, 
and  at  Charlemagne's  request  Haroun  took  the  holy  places  in  Pal- 
estine under  his  special  protection,  and  allowed  the  Christians  to 
visit  them. 

With  the  Saracens  in  Spain,  however,  the  emperor  had  constant 
trouble.  They  made  repeated  incursions  across  the  Ebro  into  the 
Spanish  Mark,  and  ravaged  the  shores  of  Majorca,  Minorca,  and 
Corsica,  which  belonged  to  the  Prankish  Empire.  Moreover,  the  ex- 
tension of  his  frontier  on  the  east  brought  Charlemagne  into  colli- 
sion with  the  Slavonic  tribes  in  the  territory  now  belonging  to 
Prussia  beyond  the  Elbe,  Saxony  and  Bohemia.  He  easily  defeated 
them,  but  could  not  check  their  plundering  and  roving  propensities. 
In  the  year  808  Holstein  as  far  as  the  Elbe  was  invaded  by  the 
Danish  king,  Gottfried,  who,  after  returning  home  with  much 
booty,  commenced  the  construction  of  that  line  of  defense  along  the 
Eider  River,  called  the  Dannewerk,  which  exists  to  this  day. 

Charlemagne  had  before  this  conquered  and  annexed  Fries- 
land.  His  empire  thus  included  all  France,  Switzerland,  and  Ger- 
many, stretching  eastward  along  the  Danube  to  Presburg,  with 
Spain  to  the  Ebro,  and  Italy  to  the  Garigllano  River,  the  later 
boundary  between  Rome  and  Naples.  There  were  no  wars  serious 
enough  to  call  him  into  the  field  during  the  latter  years  of  his 
reign,  and  he  devoted  his  time  to  the  encouragement  of  learning 
and  the  arts.  He  established  schools,  fostered  new  branches  of  in- 
dustry, and  sought  to  build  up  the  higher  civilization  which  follows 
peace  and  order.  He  was  very  fond  of  the  German  language,  and 
by  his  orders  a  complete  collection  was  made  of  the  songs  and 
poetical  legends  of  the  people.     Forsaking  Paris,  which  had  been 


86  GERMANY 

808-813 

the  Prankish  capital  for  nearly  three  centuries,  he  removed  his  court 
to  Aix-la-Chapelle  and  Ingelheim,  near  the  Rhine,  founded  the  city 
of  Frank fort-on-the-Main,  and  converted,  before  he  died,  all  that 
war-wasted  region  into  a  peaceful  and  populous  country. 

No  ruler  before  Charlemagne,  and  none  for  at  least  four  cen- 
turies after  him,  did  so  much  to  increase  and  perpetuate  the  learning 
of  his  time.  During  his  meals  someone  always  read  aloud  to  him 
out  of  old  chronicles  or  theological  works.  He  spoke  Latin  fluently 
and  had  a  good  knowledge  of  Greek.  In  order  to  become  a  good 
writer,  he  carried  his  tablets  about  with  him.,  slept  with  them  under 
his  pillow,  and  even  in  the  middle  of  the  night  would  rise  from  his 
bed,  take  the  wax  tablets  and  practice  forming  his  letters.  But 
he  never,  says  his  friend  and  biographer,  Einhard,  really  learned 
to  write  well.  He  began  too  late  in  life  and  was  too  occupied  with 
wars.  But  his  very  eflFort  shows  the  deep  interest  which  this  mon- 
arch took  in  learning.  Under  his  influence  writing  was  very  much 
improved;  the  old  Merovingian  scrawls  which  are  the  despair  of 
the  historian  gave  way  to  the  beautiful,  clear  Carolingian  minuscule 
which  was  practiced  in  all  the  schools  he  founded.  The  men  whom 
he  assembled  at  his  court  were  the  most  intelligent  of  that  age.  His 
chaplain  and  chief  counselor  was  Alcuin,  an  English  monk,  and  a 
man  of  great  learning.  His  secretary,  Einhard  (or  Eginhard), 
wrote  a  history  of  the  emperor's  life  and  times.  Among  his  other 
friends  were  Paul  the  Deacon,  a  learned  Lombard,  and  the  chron- 
icler, Bishop  Turpin.  These  men  formed,  with  Charlemagne,  a 
literary  society,  which  held  regular  meetings  to  discuss  matters  of 
science,  politics,  and  literature. 

Under  Charlemagne  the  political  institutions  of  the  Merovin- 
gian kings,  as  well  as  those  which  existed  among  the  German  races, 
were  materially  changed.  As  far  as  possible  he  set  aside  the  dukes, 
each  of  whom,  up  to  that  time,  was  the  head  of  a  tribe  or  division 
of  the  people,  and  broke  up  their  half-independent  states  into  dis- 
tricts, governed  by  counts.  These  districts  were  divided  into 
"  hundreds,"  as  in  the  old  Germanic  times,  each  in  charge  of  a 
noble,  who  every  week  acted  as  judge  in  smaller  civil  or  criminal 
cases.  The  counts,  in  conjunction  with  from  seven  to  twelve  mag- 
istrates, held  monthly  courts  wherein  cases  which  concerned  life, 
freedom,  or  landed  property  were  decided.  They  were  also  obliged 
to  furnish  a  certain  number  of  soldiers  when  called  upon.  The 
same  obligation  rested  upon  the  archbishops,  bishops,  and  abbots 


CHARLEMAGNE  87 

813 

of  the  monasteries,  all  of  whom,  together  with  the  counts,  were 
called  vassals  of  the  empire. 

The  freemen,  in  case  of  war,  were  compelled  to  serve  as  horse- 
men or  foot  soldiers,  according  to  their  wealth,  either  three  or  five 
of  the  very  poorest  furnishing  one  well-equipped  man.  The  soldiers 
were  not  only  not  paid,  but  each  was  obliged  to  bear  his  own  ex- 
penses ;  so  the  burden  fell  very  heavily  upon  this  class  of  the  people. 
In  order  to  escape  it,  large  numbers  of  the  poorer  freemen  volun- 
tarily became  dependents  of  the  nobility  or  clergy,  who  in  return 
equipped  and  supported  them.  The  national  assemblies  were  still 
annually  held,  but  the  people,  in  becoming  dependents,  gradually 
lost  their  ancient  authority,  and  their  votes  ceased  to  control  the 
course  of  events.  The  only  part  they  played  in  the  assemblies  was 
to  bring  tribute  to  the  emperor,  to  whom  they  paid  no  taxes,  and 
whose  court  was  kept  up  partly  from  their  offerings  and  partly 
from  the  revenues  of  the  "  domains  "  or  crown  lands.  Thus,  while 
Charlemagne  introduced  throughout  his  whole  empire  a  unity  of 
government  and  an  order  unknown  before,  while  he  anticipated 
Prussia  in  making  all  his  people  liable,  at  any  time,  to  military 
service,  on  the  other  hand  he  was  slowly  and  unconsciously  changing 
the  free  Germans  into  a  race  of  lords  and  serfs. 

It  is  not  likely,  either,  that  the  people  themselves  saw  the 
tendency  of  his  government.  Their  respect  and  love  for  him  in- 
creased as  the  comparative  peace  of  the  empire  allowed  him  to 
turn  to  interests  which  more  immediately  concerned  their  lives. 
In  his  ordinary  habits  he  was  as  simple  as  they.  His  daughters 
spun  and  wove  the  flax  for  his  plain  linen  garments;  personally 
he  looked  after  his  orchards  and  vegetable  gardens,  set  the  schools 
an  example  by  his  own  diligence,  and  stimulated  teachers  and  pupils 
by  his  personal  visits  to  the  school ;  he  treated  high  and  low  with 
equal  frankness  and  heartiness,  and  even  in  his  old  age  surpassed 
all  around  him  in  feats  of  strength  or  endurance.  There  seemed 
to  be  no  serfdom  in  bowing  to  a  man  so  magnificently  endowed  by 
nature  and  so  favored  by  fortune. 

One  event  came  to  embitter  his  last  days.  The  Scandinavian 
Goths,  now  known  as  Norsemen,  were  beginning  to  build  their  "  sea- 
dragons  "  and  sally  forth  on  voyages  of  plunder  and  conquest. 
They  laid  waste  the  shores  of  Holland  and  northern  France,  and 
the  legend  says  that  Charlemagne  burst  into  tears  of  rage  and 
shame  on  perceiving  his  inability  to  subdue  them  or  prevent  their 


88  GERMANY 

813-814 

incursions.  One  of  his  last  acts  was  to  order  the  construction  of 
a  fleet  at  Boulogne,  but  when  it  was  ready  the  Norse  Vikings  sud- 
denly appeared  in  the  Mediterranean  and  ravaged  the  southern 
coast  of  France.  Charlemagne  began  too  late  to  make  the  Germans 
either  a  naval  or  a  commercial  people;  his  attempt  to  unite  the 
Main  and  Danube  by  a  canal  also  failed,  but  the  very  design  shows 
his  wise  foresight  and  his  energy. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  813,  feeling  his  death  approaching, 
he  called  an  imperial  diet  together  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  to  recognize 
his  son  Ludwig  (or  Lewis)  as  his  successor.  After  this  was  done 
he  conducted  Ludwig  to  the  cathedral,  made  him  vow  to  be  just 
and  God-fearing  in  his  rule,  and  then  bade  him  take  the  imperial 
crown  from  the  altar  and  set  it  upon  his  head.  On  January 
28,  814,  Charlemagne  died,  and  was  buried  in  the  cathedral  at 
Aix.  Over  his  grave  was  placed  an  arch  with  this  inscription: 
"  Under  this  monument  rests  the  body  of  Charles,  the  great  and 
orthodox  emperor,  who  gloriously  enlarged  the  Prankish  kingdom 
and  reigned  happily  for  47  years.  He  died  at  the  age  of  70  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  814,  in  the  Seventh  Indiction,  on  the  28th  of 
January."  The  grave  has  several  times  been  opened  since — the 
last  time  in  1906  in  the  presence  of  a  distinguished  gathering.  His 
skeleton  was  found  to  be  in  a  good  state  of  preservation,  and  its 
length  corresponded  almost  exactly  with  the  description  of  the 
emperor's  unusual  size  as  given  by  Einhard. 


Chapter    XII 

THE   EMPERORS   OF   THE   CAROLINGIAN   LINE 
814-91 1  A.  D. 

THE  last  act  of  Charlemagne's  life  in  ordering  the  manner 
of  his  son's  coronation — which  was  imitated,  a  thousand 
years  afterward,  by  Napoleon,  who,  in  the  presence  of 
the  Pope,  Pius  VH.,  himself  set  the  crown  upon  his  own  head — 
showed  that  he  designed  keeping  the  imperial  power  independent 
of  that  of  the  church.  But  his  son,  Ludwig  (or  Lewis),  was  already 
a  submissive  and  willing  dependent  of  Rome.  During  his  reign 
as  King  of  Aquitaine  he  had  covered  the  land  with  monasteries, 
he  was  the  pupil  of  monks,  and  his  own  inclination  was  for  a  monas- 
tic life.  But  at  Charlemagne's  death  he  was  the  only  legitimate 
heir  to  the  throne.  Being  therefore  obliged  to  wear  the  imperial 
purple,  he  exercised  his  sovereignty  chiefly  in  the  interest  of  the 
church.  His  first  act  was  to  send  to  the  Pope  the  treasures  amassed 
by  his  father;  his  next,  to  surround  himself  with  prelates  and 
priests,  who  soon  learned  to  control  his  policy.  He  was  called 
"  Lewis  the  Pious,"  but  in  those  days,  when  so  many  worldly 
qualities  were  necessary  to  the  ruler  of  the  empire,  the  title  was 
hardly  one  of  praise.  He  appears  to  have  been  of  a  kindly  nature, 
and  many  of  his  acts  show  that  he  meant  to  be  just ;  the  weakness 
of  his  character,  however,  too  often  made  his  good  intentions  of  no 
avail. 

It  was  a  great  misfortune  for  Germany  that  Lewis's  piety  took 
the  form  of  hostility  to  all  learning  except  of  a  theological  nature. 
So  far  as  he  was  able,  he  undid  the  great  work  of  education  com- 
menced by  Charlemagne.  The  schools  were  given  entirely  into  the 
hands  of  the  priests,  and  the  character  of  the  instruction  was 
changed.  He  inflicted  an  irreparable  loss  on  all  after  ages  by  de- 
stroying the  collection  of  songs,  ballads,  and  legends  of  the  Ger- 
man people  which  Charlemagne  had  taken  such  pains  to  gather 
and  preserve.  It  is  not  believed  that  a  single  copy  escaped  destruc- 
tion, although  some  scholars  suppose  that  a  fragment  of  the  "  Song 
of  Hildebrand,"  written  in  the  eighth  century,  may  have  formed 
part  of  the  collection.    In  the  year  816  Lewis  was  visited  in  Rheims 

M 


90 


GERMANY 


816-823 

by  the  Pope,  Stephen  IV.,  who  again  crowned  him  emperor  in  the 
cathedral,  and  thus  restored  the  spiritual  authority  which  Charle- 
magne had  tried  to  set  aside.  Lewis's  attempts  to  release  the  estates 
belonging  to  the  bishops,  monasteries,  and  priesthood  from  the 
payment  of  taxes,  and  the  obligation  to  furnish  soldiers  in  case  of 
war,  created  so  much  dissatisfaction  among  the  nobles  and  people 
that,  at  a  diet  held  the  following  year,  he  was  summoned  to  divide 
the  government  of  the  empire  among  his  three  sons.  He  resisted 
at  first,  but  was  finally  forced  to  consent:  his  eldest  son,  Lothar, 
was  crowned  co-Emperor  of  the  Franks;  his  second  son,  usually 
known  as  Ludwig  "  the  German "  to  distinguish  him  from  his 
father,  was  crowned  King  of  Bavaria ;  and  his  third  son.  Pippin,  as 
King  of  Aquitaine. 

In  this  division  no  notice  was  taken  of  Bernard,  King  of  Lom- 
bardy,  also  a  grandson  of  Charlemagne.  The  latter  at  once  entered 
into  a  conspiracy  with  certain  Prankish  nobles,  to  have  his  rights 
recognized;  but  while  preparing  for  war  he  was  induced,  under 
promises  of  his  personal  safety,  to  visit  the  emperor's  court.  There, 
after  having  revealed  the  names  of  his  fellow-conspirators,  he  was 
treacherously  arrested,  and  his  eyes  put  out,  in  consequence  of 
which  treatment  he  died.  The  Empress  Irmingarde  died  soon 
afterward,  and  Lewis  was  so  overcome  both  by  grief  for  her  loss 
and  remorse  for  having  caused  the  death  of  his  nephew  that  he 
was  with  great  difficulty  restrained  from  abdicating  and  retiring 
into  a  monastery.  It  was  not  in  the  interest  of  the  priesthood  to 
lose  so  powerful  a  friend,  and  they  finally  persuaded  him  to  marry 
again. 

His  second  wife  was  Judith,  daughter  of  Welf,  a  Bavarian 
count,  to  whom  he  was  united  in  819.  Although  this  gave  him 
another  son,  Karl,  afterward  known  as  Karl  (Charles)  the  Bald, 
he  appears  to  have  found  very  little  peace  of  mind.  At  a  diet 
held  in  822,  at  Attigny,  in  France,  he  appeared  publicly  in  the 
sackcloth  and  ashes  of  a  repentant  sinner,  and  made  open  confession 
of  his  misdeeds.  This  act  showed  his  sincerity  as  a  man,  but  in 
those  days  it  must  have  greatly  diminished  the  reverence  which 
the  people  felt  for  him  as  their  emperor.  The  next  year  his  son 
Lothar,  who,  after  Bernard's  death,  became  also  King  of  Lombardy, 
visited  Rome  and  was  recrowned  by  the  Pope.  Lothar  made  him- 
self very  popular  by  seeking  out  and  correcting  abuses  in  the 
administration  of  the  laws. 


CAROLINGIAN     LINE  91 

823*838 

During  the  first  fifteen  years  of  the  reign  of  Lewis  the  Pious 
the  boundaries  of  the  empire  were  constantly  disturbed  by  invasions 
of  the  Danes,  the  Slavonic  tribes  in  Prussia,  and  the  Saracens  in 
Spain,  while  the  Basques  and  Bretons  became  turbulent  within  the 
realm.  All  these  revolts  or  invasions  were  suppressed;  the  eastern 
frontier  was  not  only  held,  but  extended,  and  the  military  power  of 
the  Prankish  Empire  was  everywhere  recognized  and  feared.  The 
Saxons  and  Frisians,  vv^ho  had  been  treated  with  great  mildness 
by  Lewis,  gave  no  further  trouble;  in  fact,  the  whole  population 
of  the  empire  became  peaceable  and  orderly  in  proportion  as  the 
higher  civilization  encouraged  by  Charlemagne  was  developed 
among  them. 

The  remainder  of  Lewis's  reign  might  have  been  untroubled  but 
for  a  family  difficulty.  The  Empress  Judith  demanded  that  her  son, 
Charles,  should  also  have  a  kingdom,  like  his  three  stepbrothers. 
An  imperial  diet  was  therefore  called  together  at  Worms,  in  829, 
and  in  spite  of  fierce  opposition  a  new  kingdom  was  formed  out  of 
parts  of  Burgundy,  Switzerland,  and  Suabia.  The  three  sons, 
Lothar,  Pippin,  and  Ludwig,  acquiesced  at  first ;  but  when  a  Span- 
ish count,  Bernard,  was  appointed  regent  during  the  minority  of 
Charles,  the  two  former  began  secretly  to  conspire  against  their 
father.  They  took  him  captive  in  France,  and  endeavored,  but  in 
vain,  to  force  him  to  retire  into  a  monastery.  The  sympathies  of 
the  people  were  with  him,  and  by  their  help  he  was  able,  the  follow- 
ing year,  to  regain  his  authority  and  force  his  sons  to  submit. 

Lewis,  however,  manifested  his  preference  for  his  youngest 
son,  Charles,  so  openly  that  in  833  his  three  other  sons  united 
against  him,  and  a  war  ensued  which  lasted  nearly  five  years. 
Finally,  when  the  two  armies  stood  face  to  face,  on  a  plain  near 
Colmar,  in  Alsatia,  and  a  bloody  battle  between  father  and  sons 
seemed  imminent,  the  Pope,  Gregory  IV.,  suddenly  made  his  ap- 
pearance. He  offered  his  services  as  a  mediator,  went  to  and  fro, 
and  at  last  treacherously  carried  all  the  emperor's  chief  supporters 
over  to  the  camp  of  the  sons.  Lewis,  then  sixty  years  old  and 
broken  in  strength  and  spirit,  was  forced  to  surrender.  The  people 
gave  the  name  o£  "  The  Field  of  Lies  "  to  the  scene  of  this  event. 

The  old  emperor  was  compelled  by  his  sons  to  give  up  his 
sword,  to  appear  as  a  penitent  in  church,  and  to  undergo  such 
other  degradations  that  the  sympathies  of  the  people  were  again 
aroused  in  his  favor.     They  rallied  to  his  support  from  all  sides; 


92 


GERMANY 


838-841 

his  authority  was  restored,  Lothar,  the  leader  of  the  rebellion,  fled 
to  Italy, — Pippin  had  died  shortly  before, — and  Ludwig  proffered 
his  submission.  The  old  man  now  had  a  prospect  of  quiet ;  but  the 
machinations  of  the  Empress  Judith  on  behalf  of  her  son,  Charles, 
disturbed  his  last  years.  He  died,  in  840,  on  an  island  in  the  Rhine, 
near  Ingelheim. 

The  death  of  Lewis  the  Pious  was  the  signal  for  a  succession 
of  fratricidal  wars.  His  youngest  son,  Charles  the  Bald,  first  united 
his  interests  with  those  of  his  eldest  stepbrother,  Lothar,  but  he 
soon  went  over  to  the  side  of  Ludwig  the  German,  while  Lothar 
allied  himself  with  the  sons  of  Pippin,  in  Aquitaine.  A  terrific 
battle  was  fought  at  Fontenay,  in  central  France,  in  the  summer 
of  841.  Lothar  was  defeated,  and  Ludwig  and  Charles  then  de- 
termined to  divide  the  empire  between  them.  The  following  winter 
they  came  together,  with  their  nobles  and  armies,  near  Strasburg, 
and  vowed  to  keep  faith  with  each  other  thenceforth.  The  language 
of  France  and  Germany,  even  among  the  descendants  of  the  original 
Franks,  was  no  longer  the  same,  and  the  oath  which  was  drawn  up 
for  the  occasion  was  pronounced  by  Charles  in  German  to  the  army 
of  Ludwig,  and  by  Ludwig  in  French  to  the  army  of  Charles. 
The  text  of  it  has  been  preserved,  and  it  is  a  very  interesting  illus- 
tration of  the  two  languages  as  they  were  spoken  a  thousand  years 
ago.  We  will  quote  the  opening  phrases,  for  the  interest  of  com- 
paring them  with  modem  French  and  German : 


Ludwig.  (French).  Pro  Deo  amur  et  (pro)  Christian  poblo  ct  nostro 
Charles  (German),  In  Codes  minna  ind  (in  thes)  Christianes  folches  ind  unser 
English.  In  God's  love  and  (that  of  the)  Christian  folk    and    our 


Ludwig.    comun       salvament, —       dist  di 

Charles,  bedhero  gehaltnissi, — fon   thesemo     dage 
English,    mutual     preservation, — from    this        day 


m    avant, — in     quant 
framordcs, — so     fram    so 
forth, —  as    long    as 


Ludwig.    Deus  savir  et  podir  me  dunat,  etc 

Charles,  mir  God  gewiczi       ind     mahd  furgibit,  etc 
English,    to  me  God  knowledge  and  might  gives,   etc 

It  is  very  easy  to  see,  from  this  slight  specimen,  how  much  the 
language  of  the  Franks  had  been  modified  by  the  Gallic-Latin,  and 
how  much  of  the  original  tongue  (taking  the  Gothic  Bible  of 
Ulfilas  as  an  evidence  of  its  character)  has  been  retained  in  German 
and  English.  About  the  same  time  there  was  written  in  the  Low 
German,  or  Saxon  dialect,  a  Gospel  narrative  in  verse,  called  the 


CAROLINGIAN     LINE  9S 

841-843 

"  Heliand  "  ("  Saviour  "),  many  lines  of  which  are  almost  identical 
with  early  English ;  as  the  following : 

Slogun  cald  isarn 

they  drove  cold    iron 

hardo  mit  hamuron 
hard  with  hammers 

thuru       is    hendi   enti   thuru    is    fuoti, 
through  his  hands  and  through  his  feet; 

is   hloud  ran  an  ertha. 
his  blood  ran  on  earth. 

This  separation  of  the  languages  is  a  sign  of  the  difference 
in  national  character  which  now  split  asunder  the  great  empire  of 
Charlemagne.  Lothar,  after  the  solemn  alliance  between  Charles 
the  Bald  and  Ludwig  the  German,  resorted  to  desperate  measures. 
He  offered  to  give  the  Saxons  their  old  laws  and  even  to  allow  them 
to  return  to  their  pagan  faith  if  they  would  support  his  claims; 
he  invited  the  Norsemen  to  Belgium  and  northern  France;  and, 
by  retreating  toward  Italy  when  his  brothers  approached  him  in 
force,  and  then  returning  when  an  opportunity  favored,  he  dis- 
turbed and  wasted  the  best  portions  of  the  empire.  Finally  the 
bishops  intervened,  and  after  a  long  time  spent  in  negotiations  the 
three  rival  brothers  met  in  843,  and  agreed  to  the  famous  "  Parti- 
tion of  Verdun  "  (so  called  from  Verdun,  near  Metz,  where  it  was 
signed),  by  which  the  realm  of  Charlemagne  was  divided  among 
them. 

Lothar,  as  the  eldest,  received  Italy,  together  with  a  long, 
narrow  strip  of  territory  extending  to  the  North  Sea,  including  part 
of  Burgundy,  Switzerland,  eastern  Belgium,  and  Holland.  All 
west  of  this,  embracing  the  greater  part  of  France,  was  given  to 
Charles  the  Bald;  all  east,  with  a  strip  of  territory  west  of  the 
Rhine,  from  Basle  to  Mayence,  "  for  the  sake  of  its  wine,"  as  the 
document  stated,  became  the  kingdom  of  Ludwig  the  German, 
who  now  ruled  over  a  real  German  population,  speaking  a  language 
uninfluenced  to  any  great  extent  by  the  Latin.  He  also  received 
eastern  Switzerland  and  Bavaria  to  the  Alps.  This  division  was 
almost  as  arbitrary  and  unnatural  as  that  which  Pippin  the  Short 
attempted  to  make.  Neither  Charles's  nor  Ludwig's  shares  included 
all  the  French  or  German  territory;   while  Lothar's  was  a  long, 


94 


GERMANY 


843 

narrow  slice  cut  out  of  both,  and  attached  to  Italy,  where  a  new 
race  and  language  were  already  developed  out  of  the  mixture  of 
Romans,  Goths,  and  Lombards.  In  fact,  it  became  necessary  to 
invent  a  name  for  the  northern  part  of  Lothar's  dominions,  and 
that  portion  between  Burgundy  and  Holland  was  called,  after  him, 
Lotharingia.  As  Lothringen  in  German,  and  Lorraine  in  French, 
the  name  still  remains  in  existence. 

Each  of  the  three  monarchs  received  unrestricted  sway  over 
his  realm.     They  agreed,  however,  upon  a  common  line  of  policy. 


VEROUN 


in  the  interest  of  the  dynasty,  and  admitted  the  right  of  inheritance 
to  each  other's  sovereignty,  in  the  absence  of  direct  heirs.  The 
Treaty  of  Verdun,  therefore,  marks  the  beginning  of  Germany 
and  France  as  distinct  nationalities ;  and  now,  after  following  the 
Germanic  races  over  the  greater  part  of  Europe  for  so  many  cen- 
turies, we  come  back  to  recommence  their  history  on  the  soil  where 
we  first  found  them.  In  fact,  the  word  Deutsch,  "  German,"  signi- 
fying "  of  the  people,"  now  first  came  into  general  use,  to  designate 
the  language  and  the  races — Franks,  Alemanni,  Bavarians,  Thurin- 
gians,  Saxons,  etc. — under  Ludwig's  rule.  There  was,  as  yet,  no 
political  unity  among  these  races;   they  were  reciprocally  jealous, 


CAROLINGIAN    LINE  96 

843-869 

and  often  hostile;  but  by  contrast  with  the  inhabitants  of  France 
and  Italy  they  felt  their  blood-relationship  as  never  before,  and 
a  national  spirit  grew  up,  of  a  narrower  but  more  natural  character 
than  that  which  Charlemagne  endeavored  to  establish. 

Internal  struggles  awaited  both  the  Roman  emperor,  Lothar, 
and  the  Frankish  king,  Charles  the  Bald.  The  former  was  obliged  to 
suppress  revolts  in  Provence  and  Italy;  the  latter,  in  Brittany  and 
Aquitaine,  while  the  Spanish  Mark,  beyond  the  Pyrenees,  passed 
out  of  his  hands.  Ludwig  the  German  inherited  a  long  peace  at 
home,  but  a  succession  of  wars  with  the  Wends  and  Bohemians 
along  his  eastern  frontier.  The  Norsemen  came  down  upon  his 
coasts,  destroyed  Hamburg,  and  sailed  up  the  Elbe  with  six  hun- 
dred vessels,  burning  and  plundering  wherever  they  went.  The 
necessity  of  keeping  an  army  almost  constantly  in  the  field  gave  the 
clergy  and  nobility  an  opportunity  of  exacting  better  terms  for  their 
support;  the  independent  dukedoms,  suppressed  by  Charlemagne, 
were  gradually  reestablished,  and  thus  Ludwig  diminished  his  own 
power  while  protecting  his  territory  from  invasion. 

The  Emperor  Lothar  soon  discovered  that  he  had  made  a  bad 
bargain.  His  long  and  narrow  empire  was  most  difficult  to  govern, 
and  in  855,  weary  with  his  annoyances  and  his  endless  marches  to 
and  fro,  he  abdicated  and  retired  into  a  monastery,  where  he  died 
within  a  week.  His  lands  were  divided  among  his  three  sons,  and 
when  the  one  to  whom  Lorraine  had  been  given  died,  in  869,  Lud- 
wig the  German  and  Charles  the  Bald,  by  the  Treaty  of  Mersen, 
divided  his  territory,  the  line  running  between  Verdun  and  Metz, 
then  along  the  Vosges,  and  terminating  at  the  Rhine  near  Basel 
— almost  precisely  the  same  boundary  as  that  which  France  was 
forced  to  accept  in  187 1.    It  made  the  Rhine  a  German  river. 

But  the  conditions  of  the  oath  taken  by  the  two  kings  in  842 
were  not  observed  by  either.  Charles  the  Bald  was  a  tyrannical 
and  unpopular  sovereign,  and  when  he  failed  to  prevent  the  Norse- 
men from  ravaging  all  western  France  the  nobles  determined  to  set 
him  aside  and  invite  Ludwig  to  take  his  place.  The  latter  con- 
sented, marched  into  France  with  a  large  army,  and  was  hailed  as 
king;  but  when  his  army  returned  home,  and  he  trusted  to  the  prom- 
ised support  of  the  Frankish  nobles,  he  found  that  Charles  had  re- 
purchased their  allegiance,  and  there  was  no  course  left  to  him  but 
to  retreat  across  the  Rhine.  The  trouble  was  settled  by  a  meeting 
of  the  two  kings,  which  took  place  at  Coblentz  in  860. 


96  GERMANY 

889-880 

Ludwig  the  German  had  also,  like  his  father,  serious  trouble 
with  his  sons,  Karlmann  and  Ludwig.  He  had  made  the  former 
Duke  of  Carinthia,  but  ere  long  discovered  that  he  had  entered 
into  a  conspiracy  with  Rastitz,  king  of  the  Moravian  Slavonians. 
Karlmann  was  summoned  to  Regensburg  (Ratisbon),  which  was 
then  Ludwig's  capital,  and  was  finally  obliged  to  lead  an  army 
against  his  secret  ally,  Rastitz,  who  was  conquered.  A  new  war 
with  Zwentebold,  King  of  Bohemia,  who  was  assisted  by  the  Sorbs, 
Wends,  and  other  Slavonic  tribes  along  the  Elbe,  broke  out  soon 
afterward.  Karlmann  led  his  father's  forces  against  the  enemy, 
and  after  a  struggle  of  four  years  forced  Bohemia,  in  873,  to  be- 
come tributary  to  Germany. 

In  875  the  Emperor  Ludwig  II.  (Lothar's  son),  who  ruled 
in  Italy,  died  without  heirs.  Charles  the  Bald  and  Ludwig  the 
German  immediately  called  their  troops  into  the  field  and  com- 
menced the  march  to  Italy,  in  order  to  divide  the  inheritance  or 
fight  for  its  sole  possession.  Ludwig  sent  his  sons,  but  their  uncle, 
Charles  the  Bald,  was  before  them.  He  was  acknowledged  by  the 
Lombard  nobles  at  Pavia,  and  crowned  in  Rome  by  the  Pope,  before 
it  could  be  prevented.  Ludwig  determined  upon  an  instant  inva- 
sion of  France,  but  in  the  midst  of  the  preparations  he  died  at 
Frankfort,  in  876.  He  was  seventy-one  years  old;  as  a  child  he 
had  sat  on  the  knees  of  Charlemagne;  as  an  independent  king  of 
Germany  he  had  reigned  thirty-six  years,  and  with  him  the  intelli- 
gence, prudence,  and  power  which  had  distinguished  the  Carolingian 
line  came  to  an  end. 

Again  the  kingdom  was  divided  among  three  sons,  Karlmann, 
Ludwig  the  Younger,  and  Karl  the  Fat;  and  again  there  were 
civil  wars.  Charles  the  Bald  made  haste  to  invade  Germany  before 
the  brothers  were  in  a  condition  to  oppose  him;  but  he  was  met 
by  Lud-wig  the  Younger  and  terribly  defeated  near  Andernach 
on  the  Rhine.  The  next  year  he  died,  leaving  one  son,  Lewis  the 
Stammerer,  to  succeed  him. 

The  brothers,  in  accordance  with  a  treaty  made  before  their 
father's  death,  thus  divided  Germany:  Karlmann  took  Bavaria, 
Carinthia,  the  provinces  on  the  Danube,  and  the  half-sovereignty 
over  Bohemia  and  Moravia ;  Ludwig  the  Younger  became  king  over 
all  northern  and  central  Germany,  leaving  Suabia  (formerly  Ale- 
mannia)  for  Karl  the  Fat.  Kallmann's  first  act  was  to  take  pos- 
session of  Italy,  which  acknowledged  his  rule,     He  was  soon  after- 


CAROLINGIAN    LINE  97 

880-887 

ward  struck  with  apoplexy,  and  died  in  880,  Karl  the  Fat  had 
already  crossed  the  Alps;  he  forced  the  Lombard  nobles  to  accept 
him,  and  was  crowned  emperor  at  Rome,  as  Karl  IIL,  in  881. 
Meanwhile  the  Germans  had  recognized  Ludwig  the  Younger  as 
Karlmann's  heir,  and  had  given  to  Arnulf,  the  latter's  illegitimate 
son,  the  duchy  of  Carinthia. 

Ludwig  the  Younger  died,  childless,  in  882,  and  thus  Ger- 
many and  Italy  became  one  empire  under  Karl  the  Fat.  He  was  a 
true  descendant  of  Lewis  the  Pious ;  sickly  by  nature  and  sunk  in  the 
affairs  of  his  own  conscience,  he  had  no  time  left  for  affairs  of  his 
country,  nor  for  warding  off  from  his  lands  the  terrible  and  ever  ad- 
vancing Norsemen.  By  this  time  Friesland  and  Holland  were  suf- 
fering from  the  invasions  of  the  Norsemen,  who  had  built  a  strong 
camp  on  the  bank  of  the  Meuse,  and  were  beginning  to  threaten 
Germany.  Karl  marched  against  them,  but  after  a  siege  of  some 
weeks  he  shamefully  purchased  a  truce  by  giving  them  territory  in 
Holland,  and  large  sums  in  gold  and  silver,  and  by  marrying  a 
princess  of  the  Carolingian  blood  to  Gottfried,  their  chieftain.  They 
then  sailed  down  the  Meuse  with  two  hundred  vessels  laden  with 
plunder. 

All  classes  of  the  Germans  were  filled  with  rage  and  shame  at 
this  disgrace.  The  dukes  and  princes  who  were  building  up  their 
local  governments  profited  by  the  state  of  affairs  to  strengthen  their 
power.  Karl  was  called  to  Italy  to  defend  the  Pope  against  the 
Saracens,  and  when  he  returned  to  Germany  in  884  he  found  a 
Count  Hugo  almost  independent  in  Lorraine,  the  Norsemen  in 
possession  of  the  Rhine  nearly  as  far  as  Cologne,  and  Arnulf  of 
Carinthia  engaged  in  a  fierce  war  with  Zwentebold,  King  of  Bo- 
hemia. Karl  turned  his  forces  against  the  last  of  these,  subdued 
him,  and  then,  with  the  help  of  the  Frisians,  expelled  the  Norsemen. 
The  two  crowned  grandsons  of  Charles  the  Bald,  Ludwig  and  Karl- 
mann,  died  about  this  time,  and  the  only  remaining  son,  Charles 
(afterward  called  the  Simple),  was  still  a  young  child.  The  Frank- 
ish  nobles  therefore  offered  the  throne  to  Karl  the  Fat,  who  accepted 
it  and  thus  united  again  under  one  crown,  for  a  short  time,  all  the 
lands  over  which  Charlemagne  had  ruled.  But  his  was  the  last  case 
of  a  universal  Christian  empire. 

Once  more  he  proved  himself  shamefully  unworthy  of  the 
power  confided  to  his  hands.  He  suffered  Paris  to  sustain  a  nine 
months*  siege  by  the  Norsemen  before  he  marched  to  its  assistance, 


98  GERMANY 

887-893 

and  then,  instead  of  meeting  the  foemen  in  open  field,  he  paid  them 
a  heavy  ransom  for  the  city  and  allowed  them  to  spend  the  follow- 
ing winter  in  Burgundy,  and  plunder  the  land  at  their  will.  The 
result  was  a  general  conspiracy  against  his  rule,  in  Germany  as  well 
as  in  France.  At  the  head  of  it  was  Bishop  Luitward,  Karl's 
chancellor  and  confidential  friend,  who,  being  detected,  fled  to 
Amulf  in  Carinthia,  and  instigated  the  latter  to  rise  in  rebellion. 
Arnulf  was  everywhere  victorious:  Karl  the  Fat,  deserted  by  his 
army  and  the  dependent  German  nobles,  was  forced,  in  887,  to 
resign  the  throne  and  retire  to  an  estate  in  Suabia,  where  he  died 
the  following  year. 

Duke  Arnulf,  the  grandson  of  Ludwig  the  German,  though 
not  born  in  wedlock,  was  now  raised  to  the  throne  by  the  German 
nobles  as  their  king.  This  election  betokens,  in  the  words  of  Ranke, 
"  the  first  independent  action  of  the  German  secular  world."  That 
is,  it  was  primarily  the  nobles,  anxious  to  have  a  warrior  at  their 
head,  and  not  the  bishops  and  clergy,  who  in  this  instance  decided 
who  should  be  ruler  in  Germany.  Being  accepted  at  Ratisbon  and 
afterward  at  Frankfort  by  the  representatives  of  the  people,  he 
was  able  to  keep  them  united  under  his  rule,  while  the  rest  of  the 
former  Frankish  Empire  began  to  fall  to  pieces.  As  early  as  879  a 
new  kingdom,  called  Burgundy,  or  Arelat,  from  its  capital  Aries, 
was  formed  between  the  Rhone  and  the  Alps ;  Berengar,  the  Lom- 
bard Duke  of  Friuli,  in  Italy,  usurped  the  inheritance  of  the 
Carolingian  line  there;  Duke  Conrad,  a  nephew  of  Lewis  the  Pious, 
established  the  kingdom  of  Upper  Burgundy,  embracing  a  part  of 
eastern  France,  with  western  Switzerland;  and  Count  Odo  of 
Paris,  who  gallantly  defended  the  city  against  the  Norsemen,  was 
chosen  king  of  France  by  a  large  party  of  the  nobles. 

King  Arnulf,'  who  seems  to  have  possessed  as  much  wisdom 
as  bravery,  did  not  interfere  with  the  pretensions  of  these  new 
rulers,  so  long  as  they  forbore  to  trespass  on  his  German  territory, 
and  he  thereby  secured  the  friendship  of  all.  He  devoted  himself 
to  the  liberation  of  Germany  from  the  repeated  invasions  of  the 
Danes  and  Norsemen  on  the  north  and  the  Bohemians  on  the  east. 
The  former  had  entrenched  themselves  strongly  among  the  marshes  ^ 
near  Louvain,  where  Amulf's  best  troops,  which  were  cavalry, 
could  not  reach  them.  He  set  an  example  to  his  army  by  dismount- 
ing and  advancing  on  foot  to  the  attack;  the  Germans  followed 
with  such  impetuosity  that  the  Norse  camp  was  taken  and  nearly 


CAROLINGIAN     LINE  99 

893-894 

all  its  defenders  slaughtered.  From  that  day  Germany  was  free 
from  invasion  by  the  Norsemen. 

Amulf  next  marched  against  his  old  enemy,  Zwentebold  (or 
Swatopluk)  of  Bohemia.  This  king  and  his  people  had  recently 
been  converted  to  Christianity  by  the  missionary  Methodius,  but  it 
had  made  no  change  in  their  predatory  habits.  They  were  the  more 
easily  conquered  by  Amulf,  because  the  Magyars,  a  branch  of  the 
Finnish  race  who  had  pressed  into  Hungary  from  the  east,  attacked 
them  at  the  same  time.  The  Magyars  were  called  "  Hungarians  " 
by  the  Germans  of  that  day — as  they  are  at  present — because  they 
had  taken  possession  of  the  territory  which  had  been  occupied  by 
the  Huns  more  than  four  centuries  before;  but  they  were  a  dis- 
tinct race,  resembling  the  Huns  only  in  their  fierceness  and  daring. 
They  were  believed  to  be  cannibals,  who  drank  the  blood  and  de- 
voured the  hearts  of  their  slain  enemies ;  and  the  panic  they  created 
throughout  Germany  was  as  great  as  that  which  went  before  Attila 
and  his  barbarian  hordes. 

After  the  subjection  of  the  Bohemians  Amulf  was  summoned 
to  Italy,  in  the  year  894,  where  he  assisted  Berengar,  King  of 
Lombardy,  to  maintain  his  power  against  a  rival.  He  then  marched 
against  Rudolf,  King  of  Upper  Burgundy,  who  had  been  conspir- 
ing against  him,  and  ravaged  his  land.  By  this  time,  it  appears,  his 
personal  ambition  was  excited  by  his  successes;  he  determined  to 
become  emperor,  and  desirous  of  securing  the  favor  of  the  Pope 
he  granted  the  most  extraordinary  privileges  to  the  church  in 
Germany,  He  ordered  that  all  civil  officers  should  execute  the 
orders  of  the  clerical  tribunals ;  that  excommunication  should  affect 
the  civil  rights  of  those  on  whom  it  fell;  that  matters  of  dispute 
between  clergy  and  laymen  should  be  decided  by  the  bishops,  with- 
out calling  witnesses — with  other  decrees  of  the  same  character, 
which  practically  set  the  church  above  the  civil  authorities. 

The  Popes  by  this  time  had  embraced  the  idea  of  becoming 
temporal  sovereigns,  and  the  dissensions  among  the  rulers  of  the 
Carolingian  line  already  enabled  them  to  secure  a  power  of  which 
the  former  Bishops  of  Rome  had  never  dreamed.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  ninth  century  the  so-called  "  Isidorian  Decretals  "  (because 
they  bore  the  name  of  Bishop  Isidor,  of  Seville)  came  to  light. 
They  were  forged  documents,  purporting  to  be  decrees  of  the 
ancient  councils  of  the  church,  which  claimed  for  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  (the  Pope)  the  office  of  Vicar  of  Christ  and  Vicegerent  of 


100  GERMANY 

894-911 

God  Upon  earth,  with  supreme  power  not  only  over  all  bishops, 
priests,  and  individual  souls,  but  also  over  all  civil  authorities.  The 
political  policy  of  the  Papal  chair  was  influenced  by  these  documents, 
and  several  centuries  elapsed  before  their  fictitious  character  was 
discovered. 

Amulf,  after  these  concessions  to  the  church,  went  to  Italy 
in  895.  He  found  the  Pope,  Formosus,  in  the  power  of  a  Lom- 
bard prince,  whom  the  Pope  had  been  compelled,  against  his  will, 
to  crown  as  emperor.  Arnulf  took  Rome  by  force  of  arms,  liberated 
the  Pope,  and  in  return  was  crowned  Roman  emperor.  He  fell 
dangerously  ill  immediately  afterward,  and  it  was  believed  that 
he  had  been  poisoned. 

Amulf  returned  to  Germany  as  emperor,  but  weak  and  broken 
in  body  and  in  mind.  He  never  recovered  from  the  effects  of  his 
illness,  but  lingered  for  three  years  longer,  seeing  his  empire  becom- 
ing more  and  more  weak  and  disorderly.  He  died  in  899,  leaving 
one  son,  Ludwig,  only  seven  years  old.  This  son,  known  in  history 
as  "  Ludwig  the  Child,"  was  the  last  of  the  Carolingian  line  in  Ger- 
many. In  France  the  same  line,  now  represented  by  Charles  the 
Simple,  was  also  approaching  its  end. 

At  a  diet  held  at  Forcheim  (near  Nuremberg)  Ludwig  the 
Child  was  accepted  as  king  of  Germany,  and  solemnly  crowned. 
On  account  of  his  tender  years  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  Arch 
bishop  Hatto  of  Mayence,  who  was  appointed,  with  Duke  Otto  of 
Saxony,  to  govern  temporarily  in  his  stead.  An  insurrection  in 
Lorraine  was  suppressed;  but  now  a  more  formidable  danger 
approached  from  the  east.  The  Hungarians  (as  we  will  henceforth 
call  the  Magyars)  invaded  northern  Italy  in  899  and  ravaged 
part  of  Bavaria  on  their  return  to  the  Danube.  Like  the  Huns, 
they  destroyed  everything  in  their  way,  leaving  a  wilderness  behind. 

The  Bavarians,  with  little  assistance  from  the  rest  of  Germany, 
fought  the  Hungarians  until  907,  when  their  duke,  Luitpold,  was 
slain  in  battle,  and  his  son  Arnulf  purchased  peace  by  a  heavy 
tribute.  Then  the  Hungarians  invaded  Thuringia,  whose  duke, 
Burkhard,  also  fell  fighting  against  them,  after  which  they  plun- 
dered a  part  of  Saxony.  Finally,  in  910,  the  whole  strength  of 
Germany  was  called  into  the  field;  Ludwig,  eighteen  years  old, 
took  command,  met  the  Hungarians  on  the  banks  of  the  Inn,  and 
was  utterly  defeated.  He  fled  from  the  field,  and  was  forced, 
thenceforth,  to  pay  tribute  to  Hungary.  He  died  in  911,  and  Ger- 
many was  left  without  a  hereditary  ruler. 


PART   II 


MEDIAEVAL  HISTORY.    911-1493 


Chapter  XIII 

CONRAD   I.   AND   THE    SAXON    DYNASTY 
91 1-973- A.  D. 

WHEN  Ludwig  the  Child  died  the  state  of  affairs  in  Ger- 
many had  greatly  changed.  The  direct  dependence  of 
the  nobility  and  clergy  upon  the  emperor,  established 
by  the  political  system  of  Charlemagne,  was  almost  at  an  end;  the 
country  was  covered  with  petty  sovereignties,  which  stood  between 
the  chief  ruler  and  the  people.  The  feudal  estates  which  were  given 
to  the  bishops,  abbots,  nobles,  and  others  who  had  rendered  special 
service  to  the  empire,  were  originally  only  granted  for  a  term  of 
years  or  for  life,  and  afterward  were  to  come  back  to  the  royal 
hands.  In  return  for  such  grants  the  feudal  lords  were  obliged 
to  answer  for  the  loyalty  of  their  retainers,  the  people  dwelling  upon 
their  lands,  and  in  case  of  war  to  follow  the  emperor's  banner  with 
their  proportion  of  fighting  men. 

So  long  as  the  wars  were  with  external  foes,  with  opportunities 
for  both  glory  and  plunder,  the  service  was  willingly  performed; 
but  when  they  came  as  a  consequence  of  family  quarrels,  and  every 
portion  of  the  empire  was  liable  to  be  wasted  in  its  turn,  the  em- 
peror's "  vassals,"  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  began  to  grow 
restive.  Their  military  service  subjected  them  to  the  chance  of  los- 
ing their  estate,  and  they  therefore  demanded  to  have  absolute 
possession  of  the  lands.  The  next  and  natural  step  was  to  have 
the  possession,  and  the  privileges  connected  with  it,  made  hereditary 
in  their  families;  and  these  claims  were  very  generally  secured, 
throughout  Germany,  during  the  reign  of  Karl  the  Fat.  Only  in 
Saxony  and  Friesland,  and  among  the  Alps,  were  the  common  peo- 
ple proprietors  of  the  soil. 

The  nobles,  or  large  landowners,  for  their  common  defense 
against  the  exercise  of  the  imperial  power,  united  under  the  rule 
of  counts  or  dukes,  by  whom  the  former  division  of  the  popula- 
tion into  separate  tribes  or  nations  was  continued.  The  emperors, 
also,  found  this  division  convenient,  but  they  always  claimed  the 
right  to  set  aside  the  smaller  rulers,  or  to  change  the  boundaries  of 
their  states,  for  reasons  of  policy. 

103 


104  GERMANY 

911-918 

Charles  the  Simple,  of  the  Carolingian  line,  reigned  in  France 
in  911,  and  was  therefore,  according  to  Ihe  family  compact,  the 
heir  to  Ludwig  the  Child.  Moreover,  the  Pope,  Stephen  IV.,  had 
threatened  with  the  ban  of  the  church  all  those  who  should  give 
allegiance  to  an  emperor  who  was  not  of  Carolingian  blood.  Nev- 
ertheless, the  German  princes  and  nobles  were  now  independent 
enough  to  defy  both  tradition  and  Papal  authority.  They  held  a 
diet  at  Forchheim,  and  decided  to  elect  their  own  king.  They 
would  have  chosen  Otto,  duke  of  the  Saxons, — a  man  of  great  valor, 
prudence,  and  nobility  of  character, — but  he  felt  himself  to  be  too 
old  for  the  duties  of  the  royal  office,  and  he  asked  the  diet  to  confer 
it  on  Conrad,  the  head  of  the  greatest  family  in  Franconia.  Conrad 
was  then  almost  unanimously  chosen  king  of  Germany,  and  was 
immediately  crowned  by  Archbishop  Hatto  of  Mayence. 

Conrad  was  a  brave,  gay,  generous  monarch,  who  soon  rose 
into  high  favor  with  the  people.  He  allied  himself  firmly  with 
the  church,  and  in  return  received  its  steady  support.  A  synod  held 
in  916,  at  which  a  Papal  legate  was  present,  spoke  a  threefold  curse 
against  all  who  should  break  their  oath  of  fealty  to  the  king,  and 
declared  treasonable  undertakings  to  be  punishable  with  lifelong 
imprisonment  in  a  monastery.  But  in  spite  of  this  ecclesiastical 
support  all  Conrad's  efforts  to  establish  a  strong  monarchy  and 
check  the  dangerous  power  of  the  great  feudal  lords  proved  a 
failure.  His  difficulty  lay  in  the  jealousy  of  other  princes,  who 
tried  to  strengthen  themselves  by  restricting  his  authority.  He 
first  lost  the  greater  part  of  Lorraine,  and  then,  on  attempting  to 
divide  Thuringia  and  Saxony,  which  were  united  under  Henry, 
the  son  of  Duke  Otto,  his  army  was  literally  cut  to  pieces.  A  Saxon 
song  of  victory,  written  at  the  time,  says :  "  The  lower  world  was 
too  small  to  receive  the  throngs  of  the  enemies  slain." 

Arnulf  of  Bavaria  and  the  Counts  Berthold  and  Erchanger 
of  Suabia  defeated  the  Hungarians  in  a  great  battle  near  the  River 
Inn,  in  913,  and  felt  themselves  strong  enough  to  defy  Conrad.  He 
succeeded  in  defeating  and  deposing  them;  but  Arnulf  fled  to  the 
Hungarians  and  incited  them  to  a  new  invasion  of  Germany.  They 
came  in  two  bodies,  one  of  which  marched  through  Bavaria  and 
Suabia  to  the  Rhine,  the  other  through  Thuringia  and  Saxony  to 
Bremen,  plundering,  burning,  and  slaying  on  their  way.  Then 
Conrad,  wounded  in  repelling  a  new  invasion  of  the  Hungarians, 
looked  forward  to  death  as  a  release  from  his  trouble.    Feeling  his 


SAXON    DYNASTY 


105 


918-921 

end  approaching,  he  summoned  his  brother  Eberhard,  gave  him 
the  royal  crown  and  scepter,  and  bade  him  carry  them  to  Duke 
Henry  of  Saxony,  the  most  troublesome  of  all  his  enemies  during 
life,  declaring  that  the  latter  was  the  only  man  with  power  and 
intelligence  enough  to  rule  Germany.  In  the  words  of  a  contem- 
porary annalist:  "This  king  [Conrad]  was  so  bent  on  the  good 
of  his  fatherland  that  he  sacrificed  to  it  his  personal  enmity — truly 
a  rare  virtue." 

Henry  w^as  already  popular,  as  the  son  of  Otto,  and  it  was 
probably  quite  as  much  their  respect  for  his  character  as  for  Con- 
rad's last  request  which  led  many  of  the  German  nobles  to  ac- 
company Eberhard  and  join  him  in  offering  the  crown.  They  found 
Henry  out  hunting  in  a  pleasant  valley  near  the  Harz,  and  he  was 
thenceforth  generally  called  "  Henry  the  Fowler "  by  the  people. 
He  at  once  accepted  the  trust  confided  to  his  hands;  a  diet  of  the 
Franks  and  Saxons  was  held  at  Fritzlar  the  next  year,  919,  and  he 
was  there  lifted  upon  the  shield  and  hailed  as  king.  But  when 
Archbishop  Hatto  proposed  to  anoint  him  king  with  the  usual 
religious  ceremonies,  he  declined,  asserting  that  he  did  not  con- 
sider himself  worthy  to  be  more  than  a  king  of  the  people.  Both 
he  and  his  wife  Mathilde  were  descendants  of  Wittekind,  the  foe 
and  almost  the  conqueror  of  Charlemagne. 

Neither  Suabia  nor  Bavaria  was  represented  at  the  diet  of 
Fritzlar.  This  meant  resistance  to  Henry's  authority,  and  he  ac- 
cordingly marched  at  once  into  southern  Germany.  Burkhard,  Duke 
of  Suabia,  gave  in  his  submission  without  delay;  but  Arnulf  of 
Bavaria  made  preparations  for  resistance.  The  two  armies  came 
together  near  Ratisbon;  all  was  ready  for  battle,  when  King 
Henry  summoned  Arnulf  to  meet  him  alone,  between  their  camps. 
At  this  interview  he  spoke  with  so  much  wisdom  and  persuasion 
that  Arnulf  finally  yielded,  and  Henry's  rights  were  established 
without  the  shedding  of  blood. 

In  the  meantime  Lorraine,  under  its  duke,  Giselbert,  had  re- 
volted, and  Charles  the  Simple,  by  unexpectedly  crossing  the  fron- 
tier, gained  possession  of  Alsatia  as  far  as  the  Rhine.  Henry 
marched  against  him,  but,  as  in  the  case  of  Arnulf,  asked  for  a 
personal  interview  before  engaging  in  battle.  The  two  kings  met 
on  an  island  in  the  Rhine,  near  Bonn:  the  French  army  was  en- 
camped on  the  western,  and  the  German  army  on  the  eastern,  bank 
of  the  river,  awaiting  the  result.      Charles  the  Simple  was  soon 


106  GERMANY 

921-928 

brought  to  terms  by  his  shrewd,  intelligent  rival,  and  on  Novem- 
ber 7,  921,  a  treaty  was  signed  by  which  the  former  boundary 
between  France  and  Germany  was  reaffirmed.  Soon  afterward 
Giselbert  of  Lorraine  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  Henry,  but  the 
latter,  pleased  with  his  character,  set  him  free,  gave  him  his  daugh- 
ter in  marriage,  and  thus  secured  his  allegiance  to  the  German 
throne. 

In  this  manner,  within  five  or  six  years  after  he  was  chosen 
king,  Henry  had  accomplished  his  difficult  task.  Chiefly  by  peace- 
ful means,  by  a  combination  of  energy,  patience,  and  forbearance, 
he  had  subdued  the  elements  of  disorder  in  Germany,  and  united 
both  princes  and  people  under  his  rule.  He  was  now  called  upon 
to  encounter  the  Hungarians,  who,  in  924,  again  invaded  both 
northern  and  southern  Germany.  The  walled  and  fortified  cities, 
such  as  Ratisbon,  Augsburg,  and  Constance,  were  safe  from  their 
attacks,  but  in  the  open  field  they  were  so  powerful  that  Henry 
found  himself  unable  to  cope  with  them.  His  troops  only  dared 
to  engage  in  skirmishes  with  the  smaller  roving  bands,  in  one  of 
which,  by  g^eat  good  fortune,  they  captured  one  of  the  Hungarian 
chiefs,  or  princes.  A  large  amount  of  treasure  was  offered  for  this 
prince's  ransom,  but  Henry  shrewdly  refused  it,  and  asked  for  a 
truce  of  nine  years  instead.  The  Hungarians  finally  agreed  to 
this,  on  condition  that  an  annual  tribute  should  be  paid  to  them 
during  the  time. 

This  was  the  bravest  and  wisest  act  of  King  Henry's  life.  He 
took  upon  himself  the  disgrace  of  the  tribute,  and  then  at  once  set 
about  organizing  his  people  and  developing  their  strength.  The 
truce  of  nine  years  was  not  too  long  for  the  work  upon  which  he 
entered.  He  began  by  forcing  the  people  to  observe  a  stricter  mil- 
itary discipline,  by  teaching  his  Saxon  foot  soldiers  to  fight  on 
horseback,  and  by  strengthening  the  defenses  along  his  eastern 
frontier.  Hamburg,  Magdeburg,  and  Halle  were  at  this  time  the 
most  eastern  German  towns,  and  beyond  or  between  them,  espe- 
cially toward  the  south,  there  were  no  strong  points  which  could 
resist  invasion.  Henry  carefully  surveyed  the  ground  and  began 
the  erection  of  a  series  of  fortified  enclosures.  Every  ninth  man 
of  the  district  was  called  upon  to  serve  as  garrison  soldier,  while 
the  remaining  eight  cultivated  the  land.  One-third  of  the  harvests 
was  stored  in  these  fortresses,  wherein,  also,  the  people  were  re- 
quired to  hold  their  markets  and  their  festivals.     Thus  Quedlin* 


SAXON     DYNASTY  107 

928-936 

burg,  Merseburg,  Meissen,  and  other  towns  soon  arose  within  the 
fortified  limits.  From  these  achievements  Henry  is  often  called, 
in  German  history,  "  the  Founder  of  Cities." 

Having  somewhat  accustomed  the  people  to  this  new  form  of 
military  service,  and  constantly  exercised  the  nobles  and  their 
men-at-arms  in  sham  fights  and  tournaments  (which  he  is  said  to 
have  first  instituted),  Henry  now  tested  them  in  actual  war.  The 
Slavonic  tribes  east  of  the  Elbe  had  become  the  natural  and  hered- 
itary enemies  of  the  Germans,  and  an  attack  upon  them  hardly  re- 
quired a  pretext.  The  present  province  of  Brandenburg,  the  basis 
of  the  Prussian  kingdom,  was  conquered  by  Henry  in  928;  and 
then,  after  a  successful  invasion  of  Bohemia,  he  gradually  extended 
his  annexation  to  the  Oder.  Most  of  the  Slavonic  population  were 
slaughtered  without  mercy,  and  the  Saxons  and  Thuringians, 
spreading  eastward,  took  possession  of  their  vacant  lands.  Finally, 
in  932,  Henry  conquered  Lusatia  (now  eastern  Saxony)  ;  Bohemia 
was  already  tributary,  and  his  whole  eastern  frontier  was  thereby 
advanced  from  the  Baltic  at  Stettin  to  the  Danube  at  Vienna. 

By  this  time  the  nine  years'  truce  with  the  Hungarians  was 
at  an  end,  and  when  the  ambassadors  of  the  latter  came  to  the 
German  court  to  receive  their  tribute  they  were  sent  back  with 
empty  hands.  A  tradition  states  that  Henry  ordered  an  old,  mangy 
dog  to  be  given  to  them  instead  of  the  usual  gold  and  silver.  A 
declaration  of  war  followed,  as  he  had  anticipated;  but  the  Hun- 
garians seem  to  have  surprised  him  by  the  rapidity  of  their  move- 
ments. Contrary  to  their  previous  custom,  they  undertook  a  winter 
campaign,  overrunning  Thuringia  and  Saxony  in  such  immense 
numbers  that  the  king  did  not  immediately  venture  to  oppose  them. 
He  waited  until  their  forces  were  divided,  in  the  search  for  plunder, 
then  fell  upon  a  part  and  defeated  them.  Shortly  afterward  he 
moved  against  their  main  army,  and  on  March  15,  933,  after  a 
bloody  battle  (which  is  believed  to  have  been  fought  in  the 
vicinity  of  Merseburg),  was  again  conqueror.  The  Hungarians 
fled,  leaving  their  camp,  treasures,  and  accumulated  plunder  in 
Henry's  hands.  They  were  never  again  dangerous  to  northern 
Germany. 

After  this  came  a  war  with  the  Danish  king,  Gorm,  who  had 
crossed  the  Eider  and  taken  Holstein.  Henry  brought  it  to  an  end, 
and  added  Schleswig  to  his  dominion  rather  by  diplomacy  than  by 
arms.     After  his  long  and  indefatigable  exertions   the  empire  en- 


108  GERMANY 

936 

joyed  peace;  its  boundaries  were  extended  and  secured;  all  the 
minor  rulers  submitted  to  his  sway,  and  his  influence  over  the  peo- 
ple was  unbounded.  But  he  was  not  destined  to  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  his  achievements.  A  stroke  of  apoplexy  warned  him  to  set  his 
house  in  order ;  so,  in  the  spring  of  936,  he  called  together  a  diet  at 
Erfurt,  which  accepted  his  second  son,  Otto,  as  his  successor.  Al- 
though he  left  two  other  sons,  no  proj>osition  was  made  to  divide 
Germany  among  them.  The  civil  wars  of  the  Merovingian  and 
Carolingian  dynasties,  during  nearly  four  hundred  years,  compelled 
the  adoption  of  a  different  system  of  succession ;  and  the  reigning 
dukes  and  counts  were  now  so  strong  that  they  bowed  reluctantly 
even  to  the  authority  of  a  single  monarch. 

Henry  died  on  July  20,  936,  not  yet  sixty  years  old.  His 
son  and  successor.  Otto,  was  twenty-four — a  stern,  proud  man, 
but  brave,  firm,  generous,  and  intelligent.  He  was  married  to 
Edith,  the  daughter  of  Athelstan,  the  Saxon  king  of  England.  A 
few  weeks  after  his  father's  death  he  was  crowned  with  great  splen- 
dor in  the  cathedral  of  Charlemagne  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  All  the 
dukes  and  bishops  of  the  realm  were  present,  and  the  new  emperor 
was  received  with  universal  acclamation.  At  the  banquet  which 
followed  the  dukes  of  Lorraine,  Franconia,  Suabia  and  Bavaria 
served  as  chamberlain,  steward,  cup-bearer  and  marshal.  It  was 
the  first  national  event,  of  a  spontaneous  character,  which  took  place 
in  Germany,  and  now,  for  the  first  time,  a  German  kingdom  seemed 
to  be  a  reality. 

The  history  of  Otto's  reign  fulfilled,  at  least  to  the  people  of 
his  day,  the  promise  of  his  coronation.  Like  his  father,  his  inheri- 
tance was  to  include  wars  with  internal  and  external  foes;  he 
met  and  carried  them  to  an  end  with  an  energy  equal  to  that 
of  Henry  I.,  but  without  the  same  prudence  and  patience.  He 
made  Germany  the  first  power  of  the  civilized  world,  yet  he  failed 
to  unite  the  discordant  elements  of  which  it  was  composed,  and 
therefore  was  not  able  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  distinct  nation, 
such  as  was  even  then  slowly  growing  up  in  France. 

He  was  first  called  upon  to  repel  invasions  of  the  Bohemians 
and  the  Wends  in  Prussia.  He  intrusted  the  subjection  of  the 
latter  to  a  Saxon  count,  Hermann  Billung,  and  marched  himself 
against  the  former.  Both  wars  lasted  for  some  time,  but  they  were 
finally  successful.  The  Hungarians,  also,  whose  new  inroad 
reached  even  to  the  banks  of  the  Loire,  were  twice  defeated  and  so 


SAXON     DYNASTY  109 

936-939 

discouraged  that  they  never  afterward  attempted  to  invade  either 
Thuringia  or  Saxony. 

Worse  troubles,  however,  were  brewing  within  the  realm. 
Eberhard,  duke  of  the  Franks  (the  same  who  had  carried  his 
brother  Conrad's  crown  to  Otto's  father),  had  taken  into  his  own 
hands  the  punishment  of  a  Saxon  noble,  instead  of  referring  the 
case  to  the  king.  The  latter  compelled  Eberhard  to  pay  a  fine  of  a 
hundred  pounds  of  silver,  and  ordered  that  the  Prankish  freemen 
who  assisted  him  should  carry  dogs  in  their  arms  to  the  royal  castle 
— a  form  of  punishment  which  was  then  considered  very  disgraceful. 
After  the  order  had  been  carried  into  effect  Otto  received  the  cul- 
prits kindly  and  gave  them  rich  presents,  but  they  went  home 
brooding  revenge. 

Eberhard  allied  himself  with  Thankmar,  Otto's  own  half- 
brother  by  a  mother  from  whom  Henry  I.  had  been  divorced  before 
marrying  Mathilde.  Giselbert,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  Otto's  brother- 
in-law,  joined  the  conspiracy,  and  even  many  of  the  Saxon  nobles, 
who  were  offended  because  the  command  of  the  army  sent  against 
the  Wends  had  been  given  to  Count  Hermann,  followed  his  exam- 
ple. Otto's  position  was  very  critical,  and  if  there  had  been  more 
harmony  of  action  among  the  conspirators  he  might  have  lost  his 
throne.  In  the  struggle  which  ensued  Thankmar  was  slain  and 
Duke  Eberhard  forced  to  surrender.  But  the  latter  was  not  yet 
subdued.  During  the  rebellion  he  had  taken  Otto's  younger 
brother,  Henry,  prisoner ;  he  secured  the  latter's  confidence,  tempted 
him  with  the  prospect  of  being  chosen  king  in  case  Otto  was  over- 
thrown, and  then  sent  him  as  his  intercessor  to  the  conqueror. 

Thus,  while  Otto  supposed  the  movement  had  been  crushed, 
Eberhard,  Giselbert  of  Lorraine,  and  Henry,  who  had  meantime 
joined  the  latter,  were  secretly  preparing  a  new  rebellion.  As  soon 
as  Otto  discovered  the  fact  he  collected  an  army  and  hastened  to 
the  Rhine.  He  had  crossed  the  river  with  only  a  small  part  of  his 
troops,  the  remainder  being  still  encamped  upon  the  eastern  bank, 
when  Giselbert  and  Henry  suddenly  appeared  with  a  great  force. 
Otto  at  first  gave  himself  up  for  lost,  but,  determined  at  least  to  fall 
gallantly,  he  and  his  followers  fought  with  such  desperation  that 
they  won  a  signal  victory.  Giselbert  retreated  to  Lorraine,  whither 
Otto  was  prevented  from  following  him  by  new  troubles  among 
the  Saxons  and  the  subject  Wends  between  the  Elbe  and  Oder. 

The  rebellious  princes  now  sought  the  help  of  the  King  of 


110  GERMANY 


939 


France,  Louis  IV.  (called  "  d'Outre-mer,"  or  "  from  beyond  sea," 
because  he  had  been  an  exile  in  England).  He  marched  into 
Alsatia  with  a  French  army,  while  Duke  Eberhard  and  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Mayence  added  their  forces  to  those  of  Giselbert  and 
Henry.  All  the  territory  west  of  the  Rhine  fell  into  their  hands, 
and  the  danger  seemed  so  great  that  many  of  the  smaller  German 
princes  began  to  waver  in  their  fidelity  to  Otto.  He,  however,  has- 
tened to  Alsatia,  defeated  the  French,  and  laid  siege  to  the  fortress 
of  Breisach  (halfway  between  Strasburg  and  Basle),  although 
Giselbert  was  then  advancing  into  Westphalia.  A  small  band  who 
remained  true  to  him  met  the  latter  and  forced  him  back  upon  the 
Rhine ;  and  there,  in  a  battle  fought  near  Andemach,  Eberhard  was 
slain  and  Giselbert  drowned  in  attempting  to  flee. 

This  was  the  turning-point  in  Otto's  fortunes.  The  French 
retreated,  all  the  supports  of  the  rebellion  fell  away  from  it,  and  in  a 
short  time  the  king's  authority  was  restored  throughout  the  whole 
of  Germany.  These  events  occurred  during  the  year  939.  The 
following  year  Otto  marched  to  Paris,  which,  however,  was  too 
strongly  fortified  to  be  taken.  An  irregular  war  between  the  two 
kingdoms  lasted  for  some  time  longer,  and  was  finally  terminated 
by  a  personal  interview  between  Otto  and  Louis  IV.,  at  which  the 
ancient  boundaries  were  reaffirmed,  Lorraine  remaining  German. 

Henry,  pardoned  for  the  second  time,  was  unable  to  maintain 
himself  as  Duke  of  Lorraine,  to  which  position  Otto  had  appointed 
him.  Enraged  at  being  set  aside,  he  united  with  the  Archbishop 
of  Mayence  in  a  conspiracy  against  his  brother's  life.  It  was  ar- 
ranged that  the  murder  should  be  committed  during  the  Easter 
services  in  Quedlinburg.  The  plot  was  discovered,  the  accomplices 
tried  and  executed,  and  Henry  thrown  into  prison.  During  the 
celebration  of  the  Christmas  mass  in  the  cathedral  at  Frankfort 
the  same  year  he  suddenly  appeared  before  Otto,  and,  throwing 
himself  upon  his  knees,  prayed  for  pardon.  Otto  was  magnanimous 
enough  to  grant  it,  and  afterward  to  forget  as  well  as  forgive.  He 
bestowed  new  favors  on  Henry,  who  never  again  became  unfaithful. 

During  this  time  the  Saxon  counts  Gero  and  Hermann  had 
held  the  Wends  and  other  Slavonic  tribes  at  bay,  and  gradually 
filled  the  conquered  territory  beyond  the  Elbe  with  fortified  posts, 
around  which  German  colonists  rapidly  clustered.  Following  the 
example  of  Charlemagne,  the  people  were  forcibly  converted  to 
Christianity,  and  new  churches  and  monasteries  were  founded.    The 


SAXON     DYNASTY  111 

939-951 

Bohemians  were  made  tributary,  the  Hungarians  repelled,  and  in 
driving  back  an  invasion  of  the  king  of  Denmark,  Harold  Blue- 
tooth, Otto  marched  to  the  extremity  of  the  peninsula  of  Jutland 
and  there  hurled  his  spear  into  the  sea,  as  a  sign  that  he  had  taken 
possession  of  the  land. 

He  now  ruled  a  wider  and  apparently  a  more  united  realm  than 
his  father.  The  power  of  the  independent  dukes  was  so  weakened 
that  they  felt  themselves  subjected  to  his  favor;  he  was  everywhere 
respected  and  feared,  although  he  never  became  popular  with  the 
masses  of  the  people.  He  lacked  the  easy,  familiar  ways  with  them 
which  distinguished  his  father  and  Charlemagne;  his  manner  was 
cold  and  haughty,  and  he  surrounded  himself  with  pomp  and  cere- 
mony. He  married  his  eldest  son,  Ludolf,  to  the  daughter  of  the 
Duke  of  Suabia,  whom  the  former  soon  succeeded  in  his  rule;  he 
gave  Lorraine  to  his  son-in-law,  Conrad,  and  Bavaria  to  his  brother 
Henry,  while  he  retained  the  Franks,  Thuringians,  and  Saxons 
under  his  own  personal  rule.  Germany  might  have  grown  into  a 
united  nation  if  the  good  qualities  of  his  line  could  have  been  trans- 
mitted, without  its  inordinate  ambition. 

While  thus  laying,  as  he  supposed,  the  permanent  basis  of  his 
power.  Otto  was  called  upon  by  the  King  of  France,  who,  having 
married  the  widow  of  Giselbert  of  Lorraine,  was  now  his  brother- 
in-law,  for  help  against  Duke  Hugo,  a  powerful  pretender  to  the 
French  throne.  In  946  he  marched  at  the  head  of  an  army  of 
32,000  men  to  assist  King  Louis;  but  although  he  reached  Nor- 
mandy, he  did  not  succeed  in  his  object,  and  several  years  elapsed 
before  Hugo  was  brought  to  submission. 

In  the  year  951  Otto's  attention  was  directea  to  Italy,  which, 
since  the  fall  of  the  Carolingian  empire,  had  been  ravaged  in  turn 
by  Saracens,  Greeks,  Normans,  and  even  Hungarians.  The  Papal 
power  had  become  almost  a  shadow,  and  the  title  of  Roman  em- 
peror was  practically  extinct.  Berengar  of  Friuli,  a  rough,  brutal 
prince,  called  himself  King  of  Italy,  and  demanded  the  hand  of 
Adelheid,  the  sister  of  Conrad,  King  of  Burgundy,  who  had  secured 
his  throne  with  Otto's  aid.  On  her  refusal  to  accept  Berengar,  she 
was  imprisoned  and  treated  with  great  indignity,  but  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  sending  a  messenger  to  Germany,  imploring  Otto's  in- 
tervention. His  wife,  Edith  of  England,  being  dead,  he  saw,  in 
Adelheid's  appeal,  an  opportunity  to  acquire  an  ascendency  in  Italy, 
and  resolved  to  claim  her  hand  for  himself. 


lit  GERMANY 

QK4.AIUC 

Accompanied  by  his  brother,  Henry  of  Bavaria,  his  son,  Ludolf 
of  Suabia,  and  his  son-in-law,  Conrad  of  Lorraine,  with  their  troops, 
Otto  crossed  the  Alps,  defeated  Berengar,  took  possession  of 
Verona,  Pavia,  Milan,  and  other  cities  of  northern  Italy,  and  as- 
sumed the  title  of  King  of  Lombardy.  He  then  applied  for  Adel- 
heid's  hand,  which  was  not  refused,  and  the  two  were  married  with 
great  pomp  at  Pavia.  Ludolf,  incensed  at  his  father  for  having 
taken  a  second  wife,  returned  immediately  to  Germany,  and  there 
stirred  up  such  disorder  that  Otto  relinquished  his  intention  of 
visiting  Rome,  and  followed  him.  After  much  negotiation  Beren- 
gar was  allowed  to  remain  king  of  Lombardy,  on  condition  of 
giving  up  all  the  Adriatic  shore,  from  near  Venice  to  Istria,  which 
was  then  annexed  to  Bavaria. 

Duke  Henry,  therefore,  profited  most  by  the  Italian  cam- 
paign, and  this  excited  the  jealousy  of  Ludolf  and  Conrad,  who 
beg^n  to  conspire  both  against  him  and  against  Otto's  authority. 
The  trouble  increased  until  it  became  an  open  rebellion,  which  con- 
vulsed Germany  for  nearly  four  years.  If  Otto  had  been  personally 
popular,  it  might  have  been  soon  suppressed ;  but  the  petty  princes 
and  the  people  inclined  to  one  side  or  the  other,  according  to  the 
prospects  of  success,  and  the  kingdom,  finally,  seemed  on  the  point 
of  falling  to  pieces.  In  this  crisis  there  came  what  appeared  to  be 
a  new  misfortune,  but  which,  most  unexpectedly,  put  an  end  to  the 
wasting  strife.  The  Hungarians  again  broke  into  Germany,  and 
Ludolf  and  Conrad  granted  them  permission  -to  pass  through  their 
territory  to  reach  and  ravage  their  father's  lands.  This  alliance 
with  an  hereditary  and  barbarous  enemy  turned  the  whole  people 
to  Otto's  side;  the  long  rebellion  came  rapidly  to  an  end,  and  all 
troubles  were  settled  by  a  diet  held  at  the  close  of  954. 

The  next  year  the  Hungarians  came  again  in  greater  numbers 
than  ever,  and,  crossing  Bavaria,  laid  siege  to  Augsburg.  But 
Otto  now  marched  against  them  with  all  the  military  strength  of 
Germany,  and  on  August  10,  955,  met  them  in  a  decisive  battle. 
Conrad  of  Lorraine  led  the  attack  and  decided  the  fate  of  the  day ; 
but  in  the  moment  of  victory,  having  lifted  his  visor  to  breathe  more 
freely,  a  Hungarian  arrow  pierced  his  neck  and  he  fell  dead. 
Nearly  all  the  enemy  were  slaughtered  or  drowned  in  the  River 
Lech.  Only  a  few  scattered  fugitives  returned  to  Hungary  to  tell 
the  tale,  and  from  that  day  no  new  invasion  was  ever  undertaken 
against  Germany.     On  the  contrary,  the  Bavarians  pressed  east- 


SAXON     DYNASTY  118 

955-962 

ward  and  spread  themselves  along  the  Danube  and  among  the 
Styrian  Alps,  while  the  Bohemians  took  possession  of  Moravia,  so 
that  the  boundary  lines  between  the  three  races  then  became  very 
nearly  what  they  are  at  the  present  day. 

Soon  afterward  Otto  lost  his  brother,  Henry  of  Bavaria,  and, 
two  years  later  his  son  Ludolf,  who  died  in  Italy  while  endeavor- 
ing to  make  himself  King  of  the  Lombards.  A  new  disturbance  in 
Saxony  was  suppressed,  and  with  it  there  was  an  end  of  civil  war 
in  Germany  during  Otto's  reign.  We  have  already  stated  that  he 
was  proud  and  ambitious:  the  crown  of  a  Roman  Emperor, 
which  still  seemed  the  highest  title  on  earth,  had  probably  always 
hovered  before  his  mind,  and  now  the  opportunity  of  attaining  it 
came.  The  Pope,  John  XIL,  who  found  himself  in  danger  of  being 
driven  from  Rome  by  Berengar,  the  Lombard,  sent  a  pressing  call 
for  help  to  Otto,  who  entered  upon  his  second  journey  to  Italy 
in  961. 

He  first  called  a  diet  together  at  Worms,  and  procured  the 
acceptance  of  his  son  Otto,  then  only  six  years  old,  as  his  successor. 
The  child  was  solemnly  crowned  at  Aix-Ia-Chapelle ;  the  Arch- 
bishop Bruno  of  Cologne  was  appointed  his  guardian  and  vicegerent 
of  the  realm  during  Otto's  absence,  and  the  latter  was  left  free  to 
carry  out  his  designs  beyond  the  Alps.  He  was  received  with  re- 
joicing by  the  Lombards,  and  the  Iron  Crown  of  the  kingdom  was 
placed  on  his  head  by  the  Archbishop  of  Milan.  He  then  advanced 
to  Rome  and  was  crowned  emperor  in  St.  Peter's  by  the  Pope 
on  February  2,  962.  The  "  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the  Ger- 
man nation "  which  was  thus  founded  by  Otto  I.  was  to  con- 
tinue for  844  years,  until  finally  swept  away  by  Napoleon.  Within 
this  period  it  was  only  for  short  intervals  that  the  imperial  throne 
was  to  be  vacant,  although  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  Pope's  in- 
fluence in  the  choice  and  coronation  amounted  to  nothing.  This 
close  relation  of  Pope  and  emperor  established  by  Otto  I.  and 
John  XIL,  though  it  seemed  splendid  and  harmonious  at  first,  soon 
proved  far  otherwise.  In  fact,  this  renewal  of  the  Empire  was  the 
source  of  centuries  of  loss  and  suffering  to  Germany.  It  was  a 
sham  and  a  delusion — a  will-o'-the  wisp  which  led  rulers  and  peo- 
ple aside  from  the  true  path  of  civilization  and  left  them  flound- 
ering in  quagmires  of  war. 

Otto  had  hardly  returned  to  Lombardy  before  the  Pope,  who 
began  to  see  that  he  had  crowned  his  own  master,  conspired  against 


114  GERMANY 

962-966 

him.  The  Pope  feared  that  Otto,  in  winning  over  Italian  bishops 
by  rich  donations,  was  playing  a  far  too  important  role  in  Italy 
and  was  in  danger  of  eclipsing  the  Papal  power.  Therefore  he 
treacherously  called  on  the  Byzantine  emperor  for  aid,  incited  the 
Hungarians,  and  even  entered  into  correspondence  with  the  Sara- 
cens in  Corsica.  All  Italy  became  so  turbulent  that  three  years 
elapsed  before  the  Emperor  Otto  succeeded  in  restoring  order.  He 
took  Rome  by  force  of  arms,  deposed  the  Pope  and  set  up  another, 
of  his  own  appointment,  banished  Berengar,  and  compelled  the  uni- 
versal recognition  of  his  own  sovereignty.  Then,  with  the  rem- 
nants of  an  army  which  had  almost  been  destroyed  by  war  and 
pestilence,  he  returned  to  Germany  in  965. 

A  grand  festival  was  held  at  Cologne  to  celebrate  his  new 
honors  and  victories.  His  mother,  the  aged  Queen  Mathilde, 
Lothar,  reigning  King  of  France,  and  all  the  dukes  and  princes  of 
Germany  were  present,  and  the  people  came  in  multitudes  from 
far  and  wide.  The  internal  peace  of  the  empire  had  not  been  dis- 
turbed during  Otto's  absence,  and  his  journey  of  inspection  was  a 
series  of  peaceful  and  splendid  pageants.  An  insurrection  having 
broken  out  among  the  Lombards  the  following  year,  he  sent  Duke 
Burkhard  of  Suabia  to  suppress  it  in  his  name;  but  it  soon  became 
evident  that  his  own  presence  was  necessary.  He  thereupon  took 
a  last  farewell  of  his  old  mother,  and  returned  to  Italy  in  the 
autumn  of  966. 

Lombardy  was  soon  brought  to  order,  and  the  rebellious  nobles 
banished  to  Germany.  As  Otto  approached  Rome  the  people  re- 
stored the  Pope  he  had  appointed,  whom  they  had  in  the  meantime 
deposed;  they  were  also  compelled  to  give  up  the  leaders  of  the 
revolt,  who  were  tried  and  executed.  Otto  claimed  the  right  of 
appointing  the  civil  governor  of  Rome,  who  should  rule  in  his 
name.  He  gave  back  to  the  Pope  the  territory  which  the  latter 
had  received  from  Pippin  the  Short  two  hundred  years  before,  but 
nearly  all  of  which  had  been  taken  from  the  church  by  the  Lom- 
bards. In  return  the  Pope  agreed  to  govern  this  territory  as  a 
part,  or  province,  of  the  empire,  and  to  crown  Otto's  son  as 
emperor,  in  advance  of  his  accession  to  the  throne. 

These  new  successes  seem  to  have  quite  turned  Otto's  mind 
from  the  duty  he  owed  to  the  German  people ;  henceforth  he  strove 
only  to  increase  the  power  and  splendor  of  his  house.  His  next 
step  was  to  demand  the  hand  of  the  Princess  Theophania,  a  daugh- 


SAXON    DYNASTY  116 

966-97S 

ter  of  one  of  the  Byzantine  emperors,  for  his  son  Otto.  The  East- 
ern court  neither  consented  nor  refused;  ambassadors  were  sent 
back  and  forth  until  the  emperor  became  weary  of  the  delay.  Fol- 
lowing the  suggestion  of  his  offended  pride,  Otto  undertook  a  cam- 
paign against  southern  Italy,  parts  of  which  still  acknowledged  the 
Byzantine  rule.  The  war  lasted  for  several  years,  without  any 
positive  result;  but  the  hand  of  Theophania  was  finally  promised 
to  young  Otto,  and  she  reached  Rome  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
972.  Her  beauty,  grace,  and  intelligence  at  once  won  the  hearts  of 
Otto's  followers,  who  had  been  up  to  that  time  opposed  to  the 
marriage.  Although  her  betrothed  husband  was  only  seventeen, 
and  she  was  a  year  younger,  the  nuptials  were  celebrated  in  April, 
and  the  emperor  then  immediately  returned  to  Germany  with  his 
court  and  army. 

All  that  Otto  could  show  to  balance  his  six  years'  neglect  of 
his  own  land  and  people  was  the  title  of  "  the  Great,"  which  the 
Italians  bestowed  upon  him,  and  a  princess  of  Constantinople,  who 
spoke  Greek  and  looked  upon  the  Germans  as  barbarians,  for  his 
daughter-in-law.  His  return  was  celebrated  by  a  grand  festival 
held  at  Quedlinburg,  at  Easter,  973.  All  the  dukes  and  reigning 
counts  of  the  empire  were  present,  the  kings  of  Bohemia  and  Po- 
land, ambassadors  from  Constantinople,  Bulgaria,  Russia,  Den- 
mark, and  Hungary,  and  from  the  caliph  of  Cordova  in  Spain. 
Even  Charlemagne  never  enjoyed  such  a  triumph ;  but  in  the  midst 
of  the  festivities  Otto's  first  friend  and  supporter,  Hermann  Billung, 
whom  he  had  made  Duke  of  Saxony,  suddenly  died.  The  emperor 
became  impressed  with  the  idea  that  his  own  end  was  near:  he 
retired  to  Memleben  in  Thuringia,  where  his  father  died,  and  on 
May  6,  973,  was  stricken  with  apoplexy,  at  the  age  of  sixty-one. 
He  died  seated  in  his  chair  and  surrounded  by  his  princely  guests, 
and  was  buried  in  Magdeburg,  by  the  side  of  his  first  wife,  Edith 
of  England. 

Otto  completed  the  work  which  Henry  commenced,  and  left 
Germany  the  first  power  in  Europe.  Had  his  mind  been  as  clear 
and  impartial,  his  plans  as  broad  and  intelligent,  as  Charlemagne's, 
he  might  have  laid  the  basis  of  a  permanent  empire;  but  in  an  evil 
hour  he  called  the  phantom  of  the  scepter  of  the  world  from  the 
grave  of  Roman  power,  and,  believing  that  he  held  it,  turned  the 
ages  that  were  to  follow  him  into  the  path  of  war,  disunion,  and 
misery. 


Chapter   XIV 

THE  DECLINE  OF  THE  SAXON  DYNASTY.    9731024 

OTTO  II.,  already  crowned  as  king  and  emperor,  began  his 
reign  as  one  authorized  "  by  the  grace  of  God."  Although 
only  eighteen  years  old,  and  both  physically  and  intel- 
lectually immature,  his  succession  was  immediately  acknowledged 
by  the  rulers  of  the  smaller  German  states.  He  was  short  and 
stout,  and  of  such  a  ruddy  complexion  that  the  people  gave  him  the 
name  of  "  Otto  the  Red."  He  had  been  carefully  educated,  and 
possessed  excellent  qualities  of  heart  and  mind,  but  he  had  not  been 
tried  by  adversity,  like  his  father  and  grandfather,  and  failed  to 
inherit  either  the  patience  or  the  energy  of  either.  At  first  his 
mother,  the  widowed  Empress  Adelheid,  conducted  the  govern- 
ment of  the  empire,  and  with  such  prudence  that  all  were  satisfied. 
Soon,  however,  the  Empress  Theophania  became  jealous  of  her 
mother-in-law's  influence,  and  the  latter  was  compelled  to  retire 
to  her  former  home  in  Burgundy. 

The  first  internal  trouble  came  from  Henry  II.,  Duke  of  Ba- 
varia, the  son  of  Otto  the  Great's  rebellious  brother,  and  cousin  of 
Otto  II.  He  was  ambitious  to  convert  Bavaria  into  an  independent 
kingdom :  in  fact  he  had  himself  crowned  king  at  Ratisbon,  but  in 
976  he  was  defeated,  taken  prisoner,  and  banished  to  Holland  by 
the  emperor.  Bavaria  was  united  to  Suabia,  and  the  eastern 
provinces  on  the  Danube  were  erected  into  a  separate  principality, 
which  was  the  beginning  of  Austria  as  a  new  German  power. 

At  the  same  time  Otto  II.  was  forced  to  carry  on  new  wars 
with  Bohemia  and  Denmark,  in  both  of  which  he  maintained  the 
frontiers  established  by  his  father.  But  Lothar,  King  of  France, 
used  the  opportunity  to  get  possession  of  Lorraine  and  even  to  take 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  Charlemagne's  capital,  in  the  summer  of  978. 
The  German  people  were  so  enraged  at  this  treacherous  invasion 
that  Otto  II.  had  no  difficulty  in  raising  an  army  of  sixty  thousand 
men,  with  which  he  marched  to  Paris  in  the  autumn  of  the  same 

116 


SAXON     DYNASTY 


117 


978-982 

year.  The  city  was  so  well  fortified  and  defended  that  he  found  it 
prudent  to  raise  the  siege  as  winter  approached;  but  first,  on  the 
heights  of  Montmartre,  his  army  chanted  a  Te  Deum  as  a  warning 
to  the  enemy  within  the  walls.  The  strife  was  prolonged  until  980, 
when  it  was  settled  by  a  personal  interview  of  the  emperor  and  the 
King  of  France,  at  which  Lorraine  was  restored  to  Germany. 

In  981  Otto  II.  went  to  Italy.  His  mother,  Adelheid,  came 
to  Pavia  to  meet  him,  and  a  complete  reconciliation  took  place  be- 
tween them.  Then  he  advanced  to  Rome,  quieted  the  dissensions 
in  the  government  of  the  city,  and  received  as  his  guests  Conrad, 


King  of  Burgundy,  and  Hugh  Capet,  destined  to  be  the  ancestor  of 
a  long  line  of  French  kings.  At  this  time  both  the  Byzantine 
Greeks  and  the  Saracens  were  ravaging  southern  Italy,  and  it  was 
Otto  II. 's  duty,  as  Roman  emperor,  to  drive  them  from  the  land. 
The  two  bitterly  hostile  races  became  allies  in  order  to  resist  him, 
and  the  war  was  carried  on  fiercely  until  the  summer  of  982  with- 
out any  result;  then,  on  July  13,  on  the  coast  of  Calabria,  the 
imperial  army  was  literally  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Saracens.  The 
emperor  escaped  capture  by  riding  into  the  Mediterranean  and 
swimming  to  a  ship  which  lay  near.    When  he  was  taken  on  board 


118  GERMANY 

982-991 

he  found  it  to  be  a  Greek  vessel ;  but  whether  he  was  recognized  or 
not  (for  the  accounts  vary),  he  prevailed  upon  the  captain  to  set 
him  ashore  at  Rossano,  where  the  Empress  Theophania  was  await- 
ing his  return  from  battle. 

This  was  a  severe  blow,  but  it  aroused  the  national  spirit  of 
Germany.  Otto  II.,  having  returned  to  northern  Italy,  summoned 
a  general  diet  of  the  empire  to  meet  at  Verona  in  the  summer  of 
983.  All  the  subject  dukes  and  princes  attended,  even  the  kings  of 
Burgundy  and  Bohemia.  Here  for  the  first  time  the  Lombard 
Italians  appeared  on  equal  footing  with  the  Saxons,  Franks,  and 
Bavarians,  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  empire,  and  elected 
Otto  II.'s  son,  another  Otto,  only  three  years  old,  as  his  successor. 
Preparations  were  made  for  a  grand  war  against  the  Saracens  and 
the  Eastern  Empire,  but  before  they  were  completed  Otto  II.  died, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  after  a  rule  of  ten  years.  His  body  was 
taken  to  Rome  and  buried  in  St.  Peter's  in  an  antique  sarcophagus, 
over  which  was  placed  a  vase  of  porphyry.  That  vase  serves  to-day 
as  a  christening  font  in  St.  Peter's.  The  sarcophagus  is  now  a 
watering  trough  in  the  palace  of  the  Quirinal. 

The  news  of  his  death  reached  Aix-la-Chapelle  at  the  very 
time  when  his  infant  son  was  crowned  king  as  Otto  III.,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  decree  of  the  Diet  of  Verona.  A  dispute  now  arose 
as  to  the  guardianship  of  the  child,  between  the  widowed  Empress 
Theophania  and  Henry  II.  of  Bavaria,  who  at  once  returned  from 
his  exile  in  Holland.  The  latter  aimed  at  usurping  the  imperial 
throne,  but  he  was  incautious  enough  to  betray  his  design  too  soon, 
and  met  with  such  opposition  that  he  was  lucky  in  being  allowed 
to  retain  his  former  place  as  Duke  of  Bavaria.  The  Empress 
Theophania  reigned  in  Germany  in  her  son's  name,  while  Adelheid, 
widow  of  Otto  the  Great,  reigned  in  Italy.  The  former,  however, 
had  the  assistance  of  Willigis,  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  a  man  of 
great  wisdom  and  integrity.  He  was  the  son  of  a  poor  Saxon 
wheelwright,  and  chose  for  his  coat-of-arms  as  an  archbishop  a 
wheel,  with  the  words :  "  Willigis,  forget  not  thine  origin."  When 
Theophania  died,  in  991,  her  place  was  taken  by  Otto  III.'s  grand- 
mother, Adelheid,  who  chose  the  dukes  of  Saxony,  Suabia,  Bavaria, 
and  Tuscany  as  her  councilors. 

During  this  time  the  Wends  in  Prussia  again  arose,  and  after 
a  long  and  wasting  war,  in  which  the  German  settlements  beyond 
the  Elbe  received  little  help  from  the  imperial  government,  the 


SAXON     DYNASTY  119 

991-999 

latter  were  either  conquered  or  driven  back.  The  relations  between 
Germany  and  France  were  also  actually  those  of  war,  although 
there  were  no  open  hostilities.  The  struggle  for  the  throne  of 
France  between  Duke  Charles,  the  last  of  the  Carolingian  line,  and 
Hugh  Capet,  which  ended  in  the  triumph  of  the  latter,  broke  the 
last  link  of  blood  and  tradition  connecting  the  two  countries.  They 
had  been  jealous  relatives  hitherto ;  now  they  became  strangers,  and 
it  is  not  long  before  history  records  them  as  enemies. 

When  Otto  III.  was  sixteen  years  old,  in  996,  he  took  the  im- 
perial government  in  his  own  hands.  His  education  had  been  more 
Greek  than  German;  he  was  ashamed  of  his  Saxon  blood,  and 
named  himself,  in  his  edicts,  "  a  Greek  by  birth  and  a  Roman  by 
right  of  rule."  He  was  a  strange,  unsteady,  fantastic  character, 
whose  leading  idea  was  to  surround  himself  with  the  absurd  cere- 
monies of  the  Byzantine  court,  and  to  make  Rome  the  capital  of 
his  empire.  His  reign  was  a  farce,  compared  with  that  of  his 
grandfather,  the  great  Otto,  and  yet  it  was  the  natural  consequence 
of  the  latter's  perverted  ambition. 

Otto  ni.'s  first  act  was  to  march  to  Rome  in  order  to  be 
crowned  as  emperor  by  the  Pope,  John  XV.,  in  exchange  for  as- 
sisting him  against  Crescentius,  a  Roman  noble  who  had  usurped 
the  civil  government.  But  the  Pope  died  before  his  arrival,  and 
Otto  thereupon  appointed  his  own  cousin,  Bruno,  a  young  man  of 
twenty-four,  who  took  the  Papal  chair  as  Gregory  V.  The  new- 
made  Pope,  of  course,  crowned  him  as  Roman  emperor  a  few  days 
afterward.  The  people  in  those  days  were  accustomed  to  submit 
to  any  authority,  spiritual  or  political,  which  was  strong  enough  to 
support  its  own  claims,  but  this  bargain  was  a  little  too  plain  and 
bare-faced;  and  Otto  had  hardly  returned  to  Germany  before  the 
Roman,  Crescentius,  drove  away  Gregory  V.  and  set  up  a  new 
Pope  of  his  own  appointment. 

The  Wends,  in  Prussia  were  giving  trouble  and  the  Scandi- 
navians and  Danes  ravaged  all  the  northern  coast  of  Germany;  but 
the  boy-emperor,  without  giving  a  thought  to  his  immediate  duty, 
hastened  back  to  Italy  in  997,  took  Crescentius  prisoner  and  be- 
headed him,  barbarously  mutilated  the  rival  Pope,  and  reinstated 
Gregory  V.  When  the  latter  died,  in  999,  Otto  made  his  own 
teacher,  Gerbert  of  Rheims,  Pope,  under  the  name  of  Sylvester  II. 
In  spite  of  the  reverence  of  the  common  people  for  the  Papal  office, 
they  always  believed  Pope  Sylvester  to  be  a  magician  and  in  league 


1£0  •  GERMANY 

999-1002 

with  the  (fevil.  He  was  the  most  learned  man  of  his  day,  and  in 
his  knowledge  of  natural  science  was  far  in  advance  of  his  time; 
but  such  accomplishments  were  then  very  rare  in  Italy,  and 
unheard-of  in  a  Pope.  Otto  III.  remained  three  years  longer  in 
Italy,  dividing  his  time  between  pompous  festivals  and  visits  to 
religious  anchorites. 

In  the  year  looo  he  was  recalled  to  Germany.  His  father's 
sister,  Mathilde,  who  had  governed  the  country  as  well  as  she  was 
able  during  his  absence,  was  dead,  and  there  were  difficulties,  not 
of  a  political  nature  (for  to  such  he  paid  no  attention),  but  in  the 
organization  of  the  church,  which  he  was  anxious  to  settle.  The 
Poles  were  converted  to  Christianity  by  this  time,  and  their  spiritual 
head  was  the  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg ;  but  now  they  demanded  a 
separate  and  national  diocese.  This  Otto  granted  to  their  duke,  or 
king,  Boleslav,  with  such  other  independent  rights,  that  the  author- 
ity of  the  German  Empire  soon  ceased  to  be  acknowledged  by  the 
Poles.  Otto  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  tomb  of  St.  Adalbert  of 
Prague,  who  was  slain  by  the  Prussian  pagans,  then  visited  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  where,  following  a  half-delirious  fancy,  he  descended  into 
the  vault  where  lay  the  body  of  Charlemagne,  in  the  hope  of  hear- 
ing a  voice  or  receiving  a  sign  which  might  direct  him  how  to 
restore  the  Roman  Empire.^ 

The  new  Pope,  Sylvester  II.,  after  Otto  III.'s  departure  from 
Rome,  found  himself  in  as  difficult  a  position  as  his  predecessor, 
Gregory  V.  He  was  also  obliged  to  call  the  emperor  to  his  aid, 
and  the  latter  returned  to  Italy  in  looi.  He  established  his  court 
in  a  palace  on  the  Aventine  Hill,  in  Rome,  and  maintained  his  au- 
thority for  a  little  while,  in  spite  of  a  fierce  popular  revolt.  Then, 
becoming  restless,  yet  not  knowing  what  to  do,  he  wandered  up 
and  down  Italy,  paid  a  mysterious  visit  to  Venice  by  night,  and 
finally  returned  to  Rome,  to  find  the  gates  barred  against  him.  He 
began  a  siege,  but  before  anything  was  accomplished  he  died  in 
I002,  as  was  generally  believed,  of  poison.  The  nobles  and  the  im- 
perial guards  who  accompanied  him  took  charge  of  .his  body,  cut 
their  way  through  a  population  in  rebellion  against  his  rule,  and 

*  This  visit  of  Otto  III.  to  the  tomb  of  Charlemag^ne  made  a  great  impres- 
sion on  the  writers  of  the  time;  they  made  up  and  circulated  the  wildest  stories 
and  details  about  the  event,  which  have  persisted  even  to  our  own  day.  But  no 
historian  believes  any  longer  that  Charles  sat  upright  on  a  golden  throne,  that 
his  finger-nails  had  burst  through  his  gloves,  or  that  Otto  repaired  his  great 
predecessor's  nose  with  a  point  of  gold. 


SAXON     DYNASTY  121 

1002-1006 

carried  him  over  the  Alps  to  Germany,  where  he  was  buried  in 
Aix-la-Chapelle. 

The  next  year  Pope  Sylvester  II.  died,  and  Rome  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  counts  of  Tusculum,  who  tried  to  make  the  Papacy  a 
hereditary  dignity  in  their  family.  One  of  them,  a  boy  of  seven- 
teen, became  Pope  as  John  XVI.,  and  during  the  following  thirty 
years  four  other  boys  held  the  office  of  head  of  the  Christian 
Church,  crowned  emperors,  and  blessed  or  excommunicated  at  their 
will.  This  was  the  end  of  the  grand  political  and  spiritual  empire 
which  Charlemagne  had  planned,  two  centuries  before — b.  fantastic, 
visionary  youth  as  emperor,  and  a  weak,  ignorant  boy  as  Pope! 

At  Otto  III.'s  death  there  were  three  claimants  to  the  throne, 
belonging  to  the  Saxon  dynasty;  but  his  nearest  relative,  Henry, 
third  Duke  of  Bavaria,  and  great-grandson  of  King  Henry  I.  the 
Fowler,  was  finally  elected.  Suabia,  Saxony,  and  Lorraine  did  not 
immediately  acquiesce  in  the  choice,  but  they  soon  found  it  ex- 
pedient to  submit.  Henry's  authority  was  thus  established  within 
Germany;  but  on  its  frontiers  and  in  Italy,  which  was  now  consid- 
ered a  genuine  part  of  "  the  Roman  Empire,"  the  usual  troubles 
awaited  him.  He  was  a  man  of  weak  constitution  and  only  average 
intellect,  but  well-meaning,  conscientious,  and  probably  as  just  as 
it  was  possible  for  him  to  be,  under  the  circumstances.  His  life  as 
emperor,  was  "  a  battle  and  a  march  "  ;  but  its  heaviest  burdens 
were  inherited  from  his  predecessors.  He  was  obliged  to  correct 
twenty  years  of  misrule,  or  rather  no  rule,  and  he  courageously 
gave  the  remainder  of  his  life  to  the  task. 

The  Polish  duke,  Boleslav,  sought  to  unite  Bohemia  and  all 
the  Slavonic  territory  eastward  of  the  Elbe  under  his  own  sway. 
This  brought  him  into  direct  collision  with  -the  claims  of  Germany, 
and  the  question  was  not  settled  until  after  three  long  and  bloody 
wars.  Finally,  in  1018,  a  treaty  was  made  between  Henry  II.  and 
Boleslav,  by  which  Bohemia  remained  tributary  to  the  German 
Empire,  and  the  province  of  Meissen  (in  the  present  kingdom  of 
Saxony)  became  an  appanage  of  Poland.  By  this  time  the  Wends 
had  secured  possession  of  northern  Prussia,  between  the  Elbe  and 
the  Oder,  thrown  off  the  German  rule,  and  returned  to  their  ancient 
pagan  faith. 

In  Italy,  Arduin  of  Ivrea  succeeded  in  inciting  the  Lombards 
to  revolt,  and  proclaimed  himself  king  of  an  independent  Italian 
nation.    Henry  II.  crossed  the  Alps  in  1006  and  took  Pavia,  whose 


IfUt  GERMANY 

1006-1024 

inhabitants  rose  against  him.  In  the  struggle  which  followed  the 
city  was  burned  to  the  ground.  After  Henry's  return  to  Ger- 
many Arduin  recovered  his  influence  and  power,  became  practically 
king,  and  pressed  the  Pope,  Benedict  VIII.,  so  hard  that  the  latter 
went  personally  to  Henry  II.  (as  Leo  III.  had  gone  to  Charle- 
magne) and  implored  his  assistance.  In  the  autumn  of  1013  Henry 
went  with  the  Pope  to  Italy,  entered  Pavia  without  resistance,  re- 
stored the  Papal  authority  in  Rome,  and  was  crowned  emperor  in 
February,  10 14.  He  returned  immediately  afterward  to  Ger- 
many ;  and  Italy,  after  Arduin's  death,  the  following  year,  remained 
comparatively  quiet. 

Even  before  the  wars  with  Poland  came  to  an  end,  in  1018, 
other  troubles  broke  out  in  the  west.  There  were  disturbances 
along  the  frontier  in  Flanders,  rebellions  in  Luxemburg  and  Lor- 
raine, and  finally  a  quarrel  with  Burgundy,  the  king  of  which, 
Rudolf  III.,  was  Henry  II.'s  uncle,  and  had  chosen  him  as  his  heir. 
This  inheritance  gave  Germany  the  eastern  part  of  France  nearly 
to  the  Mediterranean  and  the  greater  portion  of  Switzerland.  But 
the  Burg^ndian  nobles  refused  to  be  thus  transferred,  and  did  not 
give  their  consent  until  after  Henry's  armies  had  twice  invaded 
their  country. 

Finally,  in  1020,  when  there  was  temporary  peace  throughout 
the  empire,  the  cathedral  at  Bamberg,  which  the  emperor  had  taken 
great  pride  in  building,  was  consecrated  with  splendid  ceremonies. 
The  Pope  came  across  the  Alps  to  be  present,  and  he  employed  the 
opportunity  to  persuade  Henry  to  return  to  Italy  and  free  the  south- 
em  part  of  the  peninsula  from  the  Byzantine  Greeks,  who  had  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  Capua  and  threatened  Rome.  The  emperor 
consented.  In  102 1  he  marched  into  southern  Italy  with  a  large 
army,  expelled  the  Greeks  from  the  greater  portion  of  their  con- 
quered territory,  and  then,  having  lost  his  best  troops  by  pestilence, 
returned  home.  He  there  continued  to  travel  to  and  fro,  settling 
difficulties  and  observing  the  condition  of  the  people.  After  long 
struggles  the  power  of  the  empire  seemed  to  be  again  secured ;  but 
when  he  began  to  strengthen  it  by  the  arts  of  peace  his  own 
strength  was  exhausted.  He  died  near  Gottingen,  in  the  summer 
of  1024,  and  was  buried  in  the  cathedral  of  Bamberg.  With  him 
expired  the  dynasty  of  the  Saxon  emperors,  less  pitifully,  however, 
than  either  the  Merovingian  or  Carolingian  line. 

When  Otto  the  Great,  toward  the  close  of  his  reign,  neglected 


SAXON     DYNASTY  123 

1024 

Grermany  and  occupied  himself  with  estabHshing  his  dominion  in 
Italy,  he  prepared  the  way  for  the  rapid  decline  of  the  imperial 
power  at  home  in  the  hands  of  his  successors.  The  reigning  dukes, 
counts,  and  even  the  petty  feudal  lords  no  longer  watched  and  held 
subordinate,  soon  became  practically  independent.  Except  in  Fries- 
land,  Saxony,  and  the  Alps,  the  people  had  no  voice  in  political 
matters,  and  thus  the  growth  of  a  general  national  sentiment,  such 
as  had  been  fostered  by  Charlemagne  and  Henry  L,  was  again 
destroyed.  In  proportion  as  the  smaller  states  were  governed  as 
if  they  were  separate  lands,  their  populations  became  separated  in 
feeling  and  interest.  Henry  II.  tried  to  be  an  emperor  of  Germany : 
he  visited  Italy  rather  on  account  of  what  he  believed  to  be  the 
duties  of  his  office  than  from  natural  inclination  to  reign  there ;  but 
he  was  not  able  to  restore  the  same  authority  at  home  as  Otto  the 
Great  had  exercised. 

Henry  II.  was  a  pious  man,  and  favored  the  Catholic  Church 
in  all  practicable  ways.  He  made  numerous  and  rich  grants  of  land 
to  churches  and  monasteries,  but  always  with  the  reservation  of  his 
own  rights  as  sovereign.  After  his  death  he  was  made  a  saint  by 
order  of  the  Pope,  but  he  failed  to  live,  either  as  saint  or  emperor, 
in  the  traditions  of  the  people. 


Chapter    XV 

THE  FRANCONIAN  EMPERORS.     1024-1106 

ON  September  4,  1024,  the  German  nobles,  clergy,  and 
people  came  together  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  near 
Mayence,  to  elect  a  new  emperor.  There  were  fifty  or 
sixty  thousand  persons  in  all,  forming  two  great  camps.  There 
were  two  prominent  candidates  for  the  throne,  but  neither  of  them 
belonged  to  the  established  reigning  houses,  the  members  of  which 
seemed  to  be  so  jealous  of  one  another  that  they  mutually  destroyed 
their  own  chances.  The  two  who  were  brought  forward  were 
cousins,  both  named  Conrad,  both  from  Franconia  (the  land  of  the 
Frankish  Germans),  and  both  great-grandsons  of  Duke  Conrad, 
Otto  the  Great's  son-in-law,  who  fell  so  gallantly  in  the  great  battle 
of  the  Lech  against  the  Hungarians,  in  955. 

For  five  days  the  claims  of  the  two  were  canvassed  by  the 
electors.  The  elder  Conrad  had  married  Gisela,  the  widow  of  Duke 
Ernest  of  Suabia,  which  gave  him  a  somewhat  higher  place  among 
the  princes;  and  therefore  after  the  cousins  had  agreed  that  either 
would  accept  the  other's  election  as  valid  and  final,  the  votes  turned 
to  his  side.  The  people,  who  were  present  merely  as  spectators 
(for  they  had  now  no  longer  any  part  in  the  election),  hailed  the 
new  monarch  with  shouts  of  joy,  and  he  was  immediately  crowned 
king  of  Germany  in  the  cathedral  of  Mayence. 

Conrad — who  was  Conrad  II.  in  the  list  of  German  emperors 
— rested  his  authority  mainly  upon  his  own  experience,  ability,  and 
knowledge  of  statesmanship.  But  his  queen,  Gisela,  was  a  woman 
of  unusual  intelligence  and  energy,  and  she  faithfully  assisted  him 
in  his  duties.  He  was  a  man  of  stately  and  commanding  appear- 
ance, and  seemed  so  well  fitted  for  his  new  dignity  that  when  he 
made  the  usual  journey  through  Germany  neither  dukes  nor  people 
hesitated  to  give  him  their  allegiance.  Even  the  nobles  of  Lorraine, 
who  were  dissatisfied  with  his  election,  found  it  prudent  to  yield 
without  serious  opposition. 

The  death  of  Henry  II.,  nevertheless,  was  the  signal  for  three 

1S4 


FRANCONIAN    EMPERORS  1«5 

1024-1027 

threatening  movements  against  the  empire.  In  Italy  the  Lom- 
bards rose,  and,  in  their  hatred  of  what  they  now  considered  to  be 
a  foreign  rule  (quite  forgetting  their  own  German  origin),  they 
razed  to  the  ground  the  imperial  palace  at  Pavia:  in  Burgundy 
King  Rudolf  declared  that  he  would  resist  Conrad's  claim  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  country,  which,  being  himself  childless,  he  had 
promised  to  Henry  II. ;  and  in  Poland,  Boleslav,  who  now  called 
himself  king,  declared  that  his  former  treaties  with  Germany  were 
no  longer  binding  upon  him.  But  Conrad  II.  was  favored  by 
fortune.  The  Polish  king  died,  and  the  power  which  he  had  built 
up — for  his  kingdom,  like  that  of  the  Goths,  reached  from  the 
Baltic  to  the  Danube,  from  the  Elbe  to  central  Russia — was  again 
shattered  by  the  quarrels  of  his  sons.  In  Burgundy,  Duke  Rudolf 
was  without  heirs,  and  finally  found  himself  compelled  to  recognize 
the  German  sovereign  as  his  successor.  With  Canute,  who  was 
then  king  of  Denmark  and  England,  Conrad  II.  made  a  treaty  of 
peace  and  friendship,  restoring  Schleswig  to  the  Danish  crown  and 
readopting  the  River  Eider  as  the  boundary. 

In  the  spring  of  1026  Conrad  went  to  Italy.  Pavia  shut  her 
gates  against  him,  but  those  of  Milan  were  opened,  and  the  Lom- 
bard bishops  and  nobles  came  to  ofifer  him  homage.  He  was 
crowned  with  the  Iron  Crown,  and  during  the  course  of  the  year 
all  the  cities  in  northern  Italy — even  Pavia,  which  promised  to  re- 
build the  imperial  palace — acknowledged  his  sway.  In  March, 
1027,  he  went  to  Rome  and  was  crowned  emperor  by  the  Pope, 
John  XIX.,  one  of  the  young  counts  of  Tusculum,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded to  the  Papacy  as  a  boy  of  twelve !  King  Canute  and  Rudolf 
of  Burgundy  were  present  at  the  ceremony,  and  Conrad  betrothed 
his  son  Henrv  to  the  Danish  princess  Gunhilde,  daughter  of  the 
former. 

After  the  coronation  the  emperor  paid  a  rapid  visit  to  south- 
ern Italy,  where  the  Normans  had  secured  a  foothold  ten  years 
before,  and,  by  defending  the  country  against  the  Greeks  and 
Saracens,  were  rapidly  making  themselves  its  rulers.  He  found  it 
easier  to  accept  them  as  vassals  than  to  drive  them  out,  but  in  so 
doing  he  added  a  new  and  turbulent  element  to  those  which  already 
distracted  Italy.  However,  there  was  now  external  quiet,  at  least, 
and  he  went  back  to  Germany. 

Here  his  stepson,  Ernest  II.  of  Suabia,  who  claimed  the 
crown  of  Burgundy,  had  already  risen  in  rebellion  against  him. 


126  GERMANY 

1027-1034 

He  was  not  supported,  even  by  his  own  people,  and  the  emperor 
imprisoned  him  in  a  strong  fortress  until  the  Empress  Gisela,  by 
her  prayers,  procured  his  liberation.  Conrad  offered  to  give  him 
back  his  dukedom  provided  he  would  capture  and  deliver  up  his 
intimate  friend,  Count  Werner  of  Kyburg,  who  was  supposed  to 
exercise  an  evil  influence  over  him.  Ernest  refused,  sought  his 
friend,  and  the  two,  after  living  for  some  time  as  outlaws  in  the 
Black  Forest,  at  last  fell  in  a  conflict  with  the  imperial  troops.  The 
sympathies  of  the  people  were  turned  to  the  young  duke  by  his 
hard  fate  and  tragic  death,  and  during  the  Middle  Ages  the  narra- 
tive poem  of  "  Ernest  of  Suabia  "  was  sung  everywhere  throughout 
Germany.  Future  generations  forgot  that  he  had  been  a  rebel 
against  the  emperor,  and  only  remembered  his  unswerving  devotion 
to  his  friend. 

Conrad  II.  next  undertook  a  campaign  against  Poland,  which 
was  wholly  unsuccessful :  he  was  driven  back  to  the  Elbe  with  great 
losses.  Before  he  could  renew  the  war  he  was  called  upon  to  assist 
Count  Albert  of  Austria  (as  the  Bavarian  East-Mark  along  the 
Danube  must  henceforth  be  called)  in  a  war  against  Stephen,  the 
first  Christian  king  of  Hungary.  The  result  was  a  treaty  of  peace 
which  left  him  free  to  march  once  more  against  Poland  and  re- 
conquer the  provinces  which  Henry  II.  had  granted  to  Boleslav. 
The  remaining  task  of  his  reign,  the  attachment  of  Burgundy  to  the 
German  Empire,  was  also  accomplished  without  any  great  diffi- 
culty. King  Rudolf,  before  his  death  in  1032,  sent  his  crown  and 
scepter  to  Conrad  II.,  in  fulfillment  of  a  promise  made  when  they 
met  at  Rome  six  years  before.  Although  Count  Odo  of  Cham- 
pagne, Rudolf's  nearest  relative,  disputed  the  succession,  and  all 
southern  Burgundy  espoused  his  cause,  he  was  unable  to  resist  the 
emperor.  Conrad  was  crowned  king  of  Burgundy  at  Payerne,  in 
Switzerland,  and  two  years  later  received  the  homage  of  nearly  all 
the  clergy  and  nobles  of  the  country  in  Lyons. 

At  that  time  Burgundy  comprised  the  whole  valley  of  the 
Rhone,  from  its  cradle  in  the  Alps  to  the  Mediterranean,  the  half  of 
Switzerland,  the  cities  of  Dijon  and  Besanqon  and  the  territory 
surrounding  them.  All  this  now  became,  and  for  some  centuries 
remained,  a  part  of  the  German  Empire.  Its  relation  to  the  latter, 
however,  resembled  that  of  the  Lombard  kingdom  in  Italy :  its  sub- 
jection was  acknowledged,  it  was  obliged  to  furnish  troops  in 
special  emergencies,  but  it  preserved  its  own  institutions  and  laws, 


FRANCONIAN    EMPERORS  187 

1034-1039 

and  repelled  any  closer  political  union.  The  continual  intercourse 
of  its  people  with  those  of  France  slowly  obliterated  the  original 
differences  between  them  and  increased  the  hostility  of  the  Bur- 
gundians  to  the  German  sway.  But  the  rulers  of  that  day  were  not 
wise  enough  to  see  very  far  in  advance,  and  the  sovereignty  of 
Burgundy  was  temporarily  a  gain  to  the  German  power. 

Early  in  1037  Conrad  was  called  again  to  Italy  by  complaints 
of  the  despotic  rule  of  the  local  governors,  especially  of  the  Arch- 
bishop Heribert  of  Milan.  It  was  he  who  first  organized  in  Milan 
a  city  militia  into  which  all  classes  of  the  population  were  enrolled. 
He,  too,  first  gave  the  Milanese  their  caroccio,  a  chariot  with  a  mast, 
to  which  were  fixed  a  crucifix  and  a  standard;  this  was  to  be  a 
rallying-point  in  desperate  battles,  and  to  typify  civic  liberty.  Heri- 
bert now  organized  a  far-reaching  conspiracy,  the  aim  of  which 
was  to  free  Italy  entirely  from  the  German  yoke.  He  incited  the 
people  of  Milan  to  support  his  plans,  and  became  in  a  short  time 
the  leader  of  a  serious  revolt.  The  emperor  deposed  him,  prevailed 
upon  the  Pope,  Benedict  IX.,  to  place  him  under  the  ban  of  the 
church,  and  besieged  Milan  with  all  his  forces;  but  in  vain.  The 
bishop  defied  both  emperor  and  Pope:  the  city  was  too  strongly 
fortified  to  be  taken,  and  out  of  this  resistance  grew  the  idea  of 
independence  which  was  afterward  developed  in  the  Italian  re- 
publics, until  the  latter  weakened,  wasted,  and  finally  destroyed  the 
authority  of  the  German  (or  "  Roman  ")  emperors  in  Italy.  Con- 
rad was  obliged  to  return  home  without  having  conquered  Arch- 
bishop Heribert  and  the  Milanese. 

In  the  spring  of  1039  he  died  suddenly  at  Utrecht,  aged  sixty, 
and  was  buried  in  the  cathedral  at  Speyer,  which  he  had  begun  to 
build.  He  was  a  very  shrewd  and  intelligent  ruler,  who  planned 
better  than  he  was  able  to  perform.  He  certainly  greatly  increased 
the  imperial  power  during  his  life  by  recognizing  the  hereditary 
rights  of  the  smaller  princes  and  replacing  the  chief  reigning 
dukes,  whenever  circumstances  rendered  it  possible,  by  members  of 
his  own  family.  As  the  selection  of  the  bishops  and  archbishops 
remained  in  his  hands,  the  clergy  were  of  course  his  immediate  de- 
pendents. It  was  their  interest,  as  well  as  that  of  the  common 
people,  among  whom  knowledge  and  the  arts  were  beginning  to 
take  root,  that  peace  should  be  preserved  among  the  different 
German  states,  and  this  could  only  be  done  by  making  the  em- 
peror's authority  paramount.     Nevertheless,  Conrad  II.  was  never 


1£8  GERMANY 

1039-1046 

popular.  A  historian  of  that  time  says :  "  No  one  sighed  when  his 
sudden  death  was  announced." 

His  son,  Henry  HI.,  already  crowned  King  of  Germany  as  a 
boy,  now  mounted  the  throne.  He  was  twenty-three  years  old, 
distinguished  for  bodily  as  well  as  mental  qualities,  and  was  ap- 
parently far  more  competent  to  rule  than  many  of  his  predecessors 
had  been.    Germany  was  quiet,  and  he  encountered  no  opposition. 

But  although  the  condition  of  Germany  and,  indeed,  of  the 
greater  part  of  Europe  was  now  more  settled  and  peaceful  than  it 
had  been  for  a  long  time,  the  consequences  of  the  previous  wars 
and  disturbances  were  very  severely  felt.  The  land  had  been  visited 
both  by  pestilence  and  famine,  and  there  was  much  suffering ;  there 
was  also  corruption  in  the  church  and  in  civil  government.  When 
things  seemed  to  be  at  their  worst  a  change  for  the  better  was 
instituted  in  a  most  unexpected  quarter  and  in  a  very  singular 
manner. 

In  the  monastery  of  Cluny,  in  Burgundy,  the  monks,  under  the 
leadership  of  their  abbot,  Odilo,  determined  to  introduce  a  sterner, 
a  more  pious,  and  Christian  spirit  into  the  life  of  the  age.  They 
began  to  preach  what  they  called  the  treuga  Dei,  the  "truce 
of  God,"  according  to  which,  from  every  Wednesday  evening 
until  the  next  Monday  morning,  all  feuds  or  fights  were  for- 
bidden throughout  the  land.  Several  hundred  monasteries  in 
France  and  Burgundy  joined  the  "  Congregation  of  Cluny  " ;  the 
church  accepted  the  idea  of  the  "  truce  of  God,"  and  the  worldly 
rulers  were  called  upon  to  enforce  it.  Henry  HI.  saw  in  this  new 
movement  an  agent  which  might  be  used  to  his  own  advantage  no 
less  than  for  the  general  good,  and  he  favored  it  as  far  as  lay  in 
his  power.  He  summoned  a  diet  of  the  German  princes,  urged  the 
measure  upon  them  in  an  eloquent  speech,  and  set  the  example  by 
proclaiming  a  full  and  free  pardon  to  all  who  had  been  his  enemies. 
The  change  was  too  sudden  to  be  acceptable  to  many  of  the  princes, 
but  they  obeyed  as  far  as  convenient,  and  the  German  people,  al- 
most for  the  first  time  in  their  history,  enjoyed  a  general  peace  and 
security. 

The  "  Congregation  of  Quny  '*  preached  also  against  the  uni- 
versal simony,  by  which  clerical  dignities  were  bought  and  sold. 
Many  of  the  priests,  abbots,  and  bishops,  and  even  some  of  the 
Popes,  had  bought  their  appointments,  and  the  power  of  the  church 
was  thus  often  exercised  by  the  most  unworthy  hands.    Henry  HI., 


FRANCONIAN    EMPERORS  129 

1046 

who  saw  the  necessity  of  a  reform,  sought  out  the  most  pious,  pure, 
and  intelligent  priests  and  made  them  abbots  and  bishops,  refusing 
all  payments  or  presents.  He  then  undertook  to  raise  the  Papal 
power  out  of  the  deplorable  condition  into  which  it  had  fallen. 
There  were  then  three  rival  Popes  in  Rome,  each  of  whom  officially 
excommunicated  and  cursed  the  others  and  their  followers. 

In  the  summer  of  1046  Henry  HI.  crossed  the  Alps  with  a 
magnificent  retinue.  The  quarrels  between  the  nobles  and  the 
people  in  the  cities  of  Lombardy  were  compromised  at  his  approach, 
and  he  found  order  and  submission  everywhere.  He  called  a 
synod,  which  was  held  at  Sutri,  an  old  Etruscan  town,  thirty  miles 
north  of  Rome,  and  there,  with  the  consent  of  the  bishops,  deposed 
all  three  of  the  Popes,  appointing  the  Bishop  of  Bamberg  to  the 
vacant  office.  The  latter  took  the  Papal  chair  under  the  name  of 
Clement  H.,  and  the  very  same  day  crowned  Henry  HI.  as  Roman 
Emperor.  To  the  Roman  people  this  seemed  no  less  a  bargain  than 
the  case  of  Otto  HI.,  and  they  grew  more  than  ever  impatient  of 
the  rule  of  both  emperor  and  Pope.  Their  republican  instincts, 
although  repressed  by  a  fierce  and  powerful  nobility,  were  kept  alive 
by  the  examples  of  Venice  and  Milan,  and  they  dreamed  as  ardently 
of  a  free  Rome  in  the  twelfth  century  as  in  the  nineteenth. 

Up  to  this  time  the  Roman  clergy  and  people  had  taken  part, 
so  far  as  the  mere  forms  were  concerned,  in  the  election  of  the 
Popes.  They  were  now  compelled  (of  course  very  unwillingly)  to 
give  up  this  ancient  right,  and  allow  the  emperor  to  choose  the 
candidate,  who  was  then  sure  to  be  elected  by  bishops  of  imperial 
appointment.  In  fact,  during  the  nine  remaining  years  of  Henry 
III.'s  reign  he  selected  three  other  Popes,  Clement  II.  and  his  first 
two  successors  having  all  died  suddenly,  probably  from  poison, 
after  very  short  reigns.  But  this  was  the  end  of  absolute  German 
authority  and  Roman  submission ;  within  thirty  years  the  Christian 
world  beheld  a  spectacle  of  a  totally  opposite  character. 

Henry  III.  visited  southern  Italy,  confirmed  the  Normans  in 
their  rule,  as  his  father  had  done,  and  then  returned  to  Germany: 
He  had  reached  the  climax  of  his  power,  and  the  very  means  he 
had  taken  to  secure  it  now  involved  him  in  troubles  which  gradually 
weakened  his  influence  in  Germany.  He  was  generous,  but  im- 
provident and  reckless;  he  bestowed  principalities  on  personal 
friends,  regardless  of  hereditary  claims  or  the  wishes  of  the  people, 
and  gave  away  large  sums  of  money,  which  were  raised  by  im- 


180  GERMANY 

10W-1054 

posing  hard  terms  upon  the  tenants  of  the  crown  lands.  A  new 
war  with  Hungary,  and  the  combined  revolt  of  Godfrey  of  Lor- 
raine, Baldwin  of  Flanders,  and  Dietrich  of  Holland  against  him, 
diminished  his  military  resources ;  and  even  his  success,  at  the  end 
of  four  weary  years,  did  not  add  to  his  renown.  Leo  IX.,  the  third 
Pope  of  his  appointment,  was  called  upon  to  assist  him  by  hurling 
the  ban  of  the  church  against  the  rebellious  princes.  He  also  called 
to  his  assistance  Danish  and  English  fleets,  which  assailed  Holland 
and  Flanders,  while  he  subdued  Godfrey  of  Lorraine.  The  latter 
soon  afterward  married  the  widowed  Countess  Beatrix  of  Tus- 
cany, and  thus  became  ruler  of  nearly  all  Italy  between  the  Po 
and  the  Tiber. 

By  the  year  105 1  all  the  German  states  except  Saxony  were 
governed  by  relatives  or  personal  friends  of  the  emperor.  In  order 
to  counteract  the  power  of  Bernhard,  duke  of  the  Saxons,  of  whom 
he  was  jealous,  he  made  another  friend,  Adalbert,  Archbishop  of 
Bremen,  with  authority  over  priests  and  churches  in  northern  Ger- 
many, Denmark,  Scandinavia,  and  even  Iceland.  He  also  built  a 
stately  palace  at  Goslar,  at  the  foot  of  the  Harz  Mountains,  and 
made  it  as  often  as  possible  his  residence,  in  order  to  watch  the 
Saxons.  Both  these  measures,  however,  increased  his  unpopularity 
with  the  German  people. 

Leo  IX.,  in  1053,  marched  against  the  Normans  who  were 
threatening  the  southern  border  of  the  Roman  territory,  but  was 
defeated  and  taken  prisoner.  The  victors  treated  him  with  all  pos- 
sible reverence,  and  he  soon  saw  the  policy  of  making  friends  of 
such  a  bold  and  warlike  people.  A  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded, 
wherein  the  Normans  acknowledged  themselves  dependents  of  the 
Papal  power :  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  fact  that  they  had  already 
acknowledged  that  of  the  German-Roman  emperors.  This  event, 
and  the  increasing  authority  of  his  old  enemy,  Godfrey,  in  Tus- 
cany, led  Henry  III.  to  visit  Italy  again  in  1054.  Although  he  held 
the  diet  of  Lombardy  and  a  grand  review  on  the  Roncalian  plains 
near  Piacenza,  he  accomplished  nothing  by  his  journey :  he  did  not 
even  visit  Rome.  Leo  IX.  died  the  same  year,  and  Henry  appointed 
a  new  Pope,  Victor  II.,  who,  like  his  predecessor,  became  an  in- 
strument in  the  hands  of  Hildebrand  of  Savona,  a  monk  of  Cluny, 
who  was  even  then,  although  few  suspected  it,  the  real  head  and 
ruler  of  the  Christian  world. 

The  emperor  discovered  that  a  plot  had  been  formed  to  as- 


FRANCONIAN     EMPERORS  181 

1054-1062 

sassinate  him  on  his  way  to  Germany.  This  danger  over,  he  had 
an  interview  with  King  Henry  of  France,  which  became  so  violent 
that  he  challenged  the  latter  to  single  combat.  Henry  avoided  the 
issue  by  marching  away  during  the  following  night.  The  emperor 
retired  to  his  palace  at  Goslar,  in  October,  1056,  where  he  received 
a  visit  from  Pope  Victor  II.  He  was  broken  in  health  and  hopes, 
and  the  news  of  a  defeat  of  his  army  by  the  Slavonians  in  Prussia 
is  supposed  to  have  hastened  his  end.  He  died  during  the  month, 
not  yet  forty  years  old,  leaving  a  boy  of  six  as  his  successor. 

The  child,  Henry  IV.,  had  already  been  crowned  King  of 
Germany,  and  his  mother,  the  Empress  Agnes,  was  chosen  regent 
during  his  minority.  The  Bishop  of  Augsburg  was  her  adviser, 
and  her  first  acts  were  those  of  prudence  and  reconciliation.  Peace 
was  concluded  with  Godfrey  of  Lorraine  and  Baldwin  of  Flanders, 
minor  troubles  in  the  states  were  quieted,  and  the  empire  enjoyed 
the  promise  of  peace.  But  the  empress,  who  was  a  woman  of  a 
weak,  yielding  nature,  was  soon  led  to  make  appointments  which 
created  fresh  troubles.  The  reigning  princes  used  the  opportunity 
to  make  themselves  more  independent,  and  their  mutual  jealousy 
and  hostility  increased  in  proportion  as  they  became  stronger.  The 
nobles  and  people  of  Rome  renewed  their  attempt  to  have  a  share 
in  the  choice  of  a  Pope ;  and,  although  the  appointment  was  finally 
left  to  the  empress,  the  Pope  of  her  selection,  Nicholas  H.,  instead 
of  being  subservient  to  the  interests  of  the  German  Empire,  allied 
himself  with  the  Normans  and  with  the  republican  party  in  the 
cities  of  Lombardy. 

At  home  the  troubles  of  the  Empress  Agnes  increased  year 
by  year.  A  conspiracy  to  murder  young  Henry  IV.  was  fortunately 
discovered;  then  a  second,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Archbishop 
Hanno  of  Cologne,  was  formed,  to  take  him  from  his  mother's  care 
and  give  him  into  stronger  hands.  In  1062,  when  Henry  IV.  was 
twelve  years  old,  Hanno  visited  the  empress  at  Kaiserswerth,  on  the 
Rhine.  After  a  splendid  banquet  he  invited  the  young  king  to  look 
at  his  vessel,  which  lay  near  the  palace;  but  no  sooner  had  the  latter 
stepped  upon  the  deck  than  the  conspirators  seized  their  oars  and 
pushed  into  the  stream.  Henry  boldly  sprang  into  the  water; 
Count  Ekbert  of  Brunswick  sprang  after  him,  and  both,  after  nearly 
drowning  in  their  struggle,  were  taken  on  board.  The  empress 
stood  on  the  shore,  crying  for  help,  and  her  people  sought  to  inter- 
cept the  vessel,  but  in  vain :  the  plot  was  successful.    A  meeting  of 


182  GERMANY 

1082-1073 

reigning  princes  soon  afterward  appointed  Archbishop  Hanno 
guardian  of  the  young  king. 

He  was  a  hard,  stern  master,  and  Henry  IV.  became  his  enemy 
for  life.  Within  a  year  Hanno  was  obHged  to  yield  his  place  to 
Adalbert,  Archbishop  of  Bremen,  who  was  as  much  too  indulgent 
as  the  former  had  been  too  rigid.  The  jealousy  of  the  other  priests 
and  princes  was  now  turned  against  Adalbert,  and  his  position  be- 
came so  difficult  that,  in  1065,  when  Henry  IV.  was  only  fifteen 
years  old,  he  presented  him  to  an  imperial  diet,  held  at  Worms, 
and  there  invested  him  with  the  sword,  the  token  of  manhood. 
Thenceforth  Henry  reigned  in  his  own  name,  although  Adalbert's 
guardianship  was  not  given  up  until  a  year  later.  Then  he  was 
driven  away  by  a  union  of  the  other  bishops  and  the  reigning 
princes,  and  his  rival,  Hanno,  was  forced,  as  chief  counselor,  upon 
the  angry  and  unwilling  king. 

The  next  year  Henry  was  married  to  the  Italian  princess, 
Bertha,  to  whom  his  father  had  betrothed  him  as  a  child.  Before 
three  years  had  elapsed  he  demanded  to  be  divorced  from  her ;  but, 
although  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence  and  the  imperial  diet  were 
persuaded  to  consent,  the  Pope,  Alexander  II.,  following  the  ad- 
vice of  his  Chancellor,  Hildebrand  of  Savona,  refused  his  sanction. 
Henry  finally  decided  to  take  back  his  wife,  whose  beauty,  patience, 
and  forgiving  nature  compelled  him  to  love  her  at  last.  About  the 
same  time  his  father's  enemy  and  his  own,  Godfrey  of  Lorraine  and 
Tuscany,  died ;  another  enemy,  Otto,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  fell  into  his 
hands,  and  was  deposed;  and  there  only  remained  Magnus,  Duke 
of  the  Saxons,  who  seemed  hostile  to  his  authority.  The  events  of 
Henry's  youth  and  the  character  of  his  education  made  him  impa- 
tient and  distrustful:  he  inherited  the  pride  and  arbitrary  will  of 
his  father  and  grandfather,  without  their  prudence,  and  he  sur- 
rounded himself  with  wild  and  reckless  princes  of  his  own  age, 
whose  counsels  too  often  influenced  his  poHcy. 

No  Franconian  emperor  could  be  popular  with  the  fierce,  inde- 
pendent Saxons.  When  it  was  rumored  that  Henry  IV.  had  sought 
an  alliance  with  the  Danish  king,  Swen,  against  them, — when  he 
called  upon  them,  at  the  same  time,  to  march  against  Poland, — 
their  suspicions  were  aroused,  and  the  whole  population  rose  in  op- 
position. To  the  number  of  sixty  thousand,  headed  by  Otto,  the 
deposed  Duke  of  Bavaria  (who  was  a  Saxon  noble),  they  marched 
to  the  Harzburg,  the  imperial  castle  near  Goslar.   Henry  rejected 


FRANCONIAN    EMPERORS  188 

1073-1074 

their  conditions,  his  castle  was  besieged,  and  he  escaped  with  diffi- 
culty, accompanied  only  by  a  few  followers.  He  endeavored  to  per- 
suade the  other  German  princes  to  support  him,  but  they  refused. 
They  even  entered  into  a  conspiracy  to  dethrone  him;  the  bishops 
favored  the  plan,  and  his  cause  seemed  nearly  hopeless. 

In  this  emergency  the  cities  along  the  Rhine,  which  were  very 
weary  of  priestly  rule,  and  now  saw  a  chance  to  strengthen  them- 
selves by  assisting  the  emperor,  openly  befriended  him.  They  were 
able,  however,  to  give  him  but  little  military  support,  and  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1074,  he  was  compelled  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  Saxons, 
which  granted  them  almost  everything  they  demanded,  even  to  the 
demolition  of  the  fortresses  he  had  built  on  their  territory.  But 
in  the  flush  of  victory  they  also  tore  down  the  imperial  palace  at 
Goslar,  the  church,  and  the  sepulcher  wherein  Henry  HI.  was  buried. 
This  placed  them  in  the  wrong,  and  Henry  IV.  marched  into  Saxony 
with  an  immense  army  which  he  had  called  together  for  the  pur- 
pose of  invading  Hungary.  The  Saxons  armed  themselves  to 
resist,  but  they  were  attacked  when  unprepared,  defeated  after  a 
terrible  battle,  and  their  land  laid  waste  with  fire  and  sword.  Thus 
were  again  verified,  a  thousand  years  later,  the  words  of  Tiberius — 
that  it  was  not  necessary  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  the  Germans, 
for,  if  left  alone,  they  would  destroy  themselves. 

The  power  of  Henry  IV.  seemed  now  to  be  assured;  but  the 
lowest  humiliation  which  ever  befell  a  monarch  was  in  store  for  him. 
The  monk  of  Cluny,  Hildebrand  of  Savona,  who  had  inspired  the 
policy  of  four  Popes  during  twenty-four  years,  became  Pope  him- 
self in  1073,  under  the  name  of  Gregory  VII.  He  was  a  man  of 
iron  will  and  inexhaustible  energy,  wise  and  far-seeing  beyond  any 
of  his  contemporaries,  and  unquestionably  sincere  in  his  aims.  He 
remodeled  the  Papal  office,  gave  it  a  new  character  and  importance, 
and  left  his  own  indelible  mark  on  the  Church  of  Rome  from  that 
day  to  this.  For  the  first  five  hundred  years  after  Christ  the  Pope 
had  been  merely  the  Bishop  of  Rome;  for  the  second  five  hundred 
years  he  had  been  the  nominal  head  of  the  church,  but  subordinate 
to  the  political  rulers  and  dependent  upon  them.  Gregory  VII. 
determined  to  make  the  office  a  spiritual  power,  above  all  other 
powers,  with  sole  and  final  authority  over  the  bishops,  priests,  and 
other  servants  of  the  church.  It  was  to  be  a  religious  empire,  exist- 
ing by  divine  right,  independent  of  the  fate  of  nations  or  the  will 
of  kings. 


184  GERMANY 

1074-1076 

He  relied  mainly  upon  two  measures  to  accomplish  this  change 
— the  suppression  of  simony  and  the  celibacy  of  the  priesthood.  He 
determined  that  the  priests  should  belong  wholly  to  the  church ;  that 
the  human  ties  of  wife  and  children  should  be  denied  to  them.  This 
measure  had  been  proposed  before,  but  never  carried  into  effect  on 
account  of  the  opposition  of  the  married  bishops  and  priests ;  but  the 
increase  of  the  monastic  orders  and  their  greater  influence  at  this 
time  favored  Gregory's  design.  Even  after  celibacy  was  proclaimed 
as  a  law  of  the  church,  in  1074,  it  encountered  the  most  violent 
opposition,  and  the  law  was  not  universally  obeyed  by  the  priests 
until  two  or  three  centuries  later. 

In  1075  Gregory  promulgated  a  law  against  simony,  in  which 
he  not  only  prohibited  the  sale  of  all  offices  of  the  church,  but  claimed 
that  the  bishops  could  only  receive  the  ring  and  crozier,  the  symbols 
of  their  authority,  from  the  hands  of  the  Pope.  The  same  year  he 
sent  messengers  to  Henry  IV.,  calling  upon  him  to  enforce  this  law 
in  Germany,  under  penalty  of  excommunication.  The  surprise  and 
anger  of  the  king  may  easily  be  imagined :  it  was  a  language  which 
no  Pope  had  ever  before  used  toward  the  imperial  power.  In- 
deed, when  we  consider  that  Gregory  at  this  time  was  quarreling 
with  the  Normans,  the  Lombard  cities,  and  the  King  of  France, 
and  that  a  party  in  Rome  was  becoming  hostile  to  his  rule,  the  act 
seems  almost  that  of  a  madman. 

Henry  IV.  called  a  synod,  which  met  at  Worms.  The  bishops, 
at  his  request,  unanimously  declared  that  Gregory  VII.  was  deposed 
from  the  Papacy,  and  a  message  was  sent  to  the  people  of  Rome 
ordering  them  to  drive  him  from  the  city.  But  just  at  that  time 
Gregory  had  put  down  a  conspiracy  of  the  nobles  to  assassinate  him 
by  calling  the  people  to  his  aid,  and  he  was  temporarily  popular  with 
the  latter.  He  answered  Henry  IV.  with  the  ban  of  excommunica- 
tion— which  would  have  been  harmless  enough  but  for  the  deep- 
seated  discontent  of  the  Germans  with  the  king's  rule.  The  Saxons, 
whom  he  had  treated  with  the  greatest  harshness  and  indignity, 
since  their  subjection,  immediately  regarded  the  Papal  ban  as  a 
justification  for  throwing  ofl  their  allegiance  to  the  emperor.  The 
other  German  states  showed  a  cold  and  distrustful  temper,  and 
their  princes  failed  to  come  together  when  Henry  called  a  national 
diet.  In  the  meantime  the  ambassadors  of  Gregory  were  busy,  and 
the  petty  courts  were  filled  with  secret  intrigues  for  dethroning 
the  king  and  electing  a  new  one. 


THE  EXCOMMUNICATED  GERMAN   EMPEROR,    HENRY   IV,    STANDS   BAREFOOTED 
IN   THE   SNOW   BEFORE  THE  CASTLE  GATES   AT  CANOSSA, 
BEGGING  ADMITTANCE   FROM   GREGORY  VII 
Paintine  by  O.  Friedrich 


FRANCONIAN     EMPERORS  135 

1076 

In  October,  1076,  finally,  a  convention  of  princes  was  held  on 
the  Rhine,  near  Mayence.  Henry  was  not  allowed  to  be  present, 
but  he  sent  messengers,  offering  to  yield  to  their  demands  if  they 
would  only  guard  the  dignity  of  the  crown.  The  princes  rejected 
all  his  offers,  and  finally  adjourned  to  meet  in  Augsburg  early  in 
1077,  when  the  Pope  was  asked  to  be  present.  As  soon  as  Henry 
IV.  learned  that  Gregory  had  accepted  the  invitation  he  was  seized 
with  a  panic  as  unkingly  as  his  former  violence.  Accompanied  only 
by  a  small  retinue,  he  hastened  to  Burgundy,  crossed  Mont  Cenis 
in  the  dead  of  winter,  encountering  many  sufferings  and  dangers 
on  the  way,  and  entered  Italy  with  the  intention  of  meeting  Pope 
Gregory  and  persuading  him  to  remove  the  ban  of  the  church.  He 
believed  that  the  Pope  would  not  refuse,  for  the  moral  sentiment  of 
Europe  would  have  utterly  condemned  any  Pope  who  should  have 
steadily  refused  absolution  to  a  sinner  ready  to  make  the  fullest 
atonement  for  the  wrongs  he  had  committed.  The  whole  teaching 
of  the  church  was  that  grace  was  obtainable  for  him  who  sought  it 
by  the  proper  means.  The  high  priest  of  all  Christendom  could  not 
afford  to  be  wanting  in  mercy.  Henry  also  wished  to  prevent 
Gregory  VII.  from  coming  to  Augsburg,  where  he  would  have 
extended  his  influence  over  the  German  clergy.  And  finally  Henry 
clearly  saw  that  he  must  have  the  ban  removed  in  order  to  withdraw 
from  his  vassals  in  Germany  their  reason  for  breaking  their  alle- 
giance. To  chastise  successfully  his  German  rebel  vassals  he  must 
first  make  peace  with  the  Pope;  hence  his  sudden  and  often  misrep- 
resented journey  to  Italy  in  the  winter  snows  of  1076. 

At  the  news  of  his  arrival  in  Lombardy,  the  bishops  and  nobles 
from  all  the  cities  flocked  to  his  support,  and  demanded  only  that  he 
should  lead  them  against  the  Pope.  The  movement  was  so  threat- 
ening that  Gregory  himself,  already  on  his  way  to  Germany,  halted, 
and  retired  for  a  time  to  the  castle  of  Canossa  (in  the  Apennines, 
not  far  from  Parma),  which  belonged  to  his  devoted  friend,  the 
Countess  Matilda  of  Tuscany.  Thither  Henry  humbly  bent  his 
steps,  and,  presenting  himself  before  the  gate  barefoot  and  clad  only 
in  a  shirt  of  sackcloth,  asked  to  be  admitted  and  pardoned  as  a 
repentant  sinner.  Gregory,  so  unexpectedly  triumphant,  prolonged 
the  satisfaction  which  he  enjoyed  in  the  king's  humiliation :  for  three 
days  the  latter  waited  at  the  gate  in  snow  and  rain  before  he  was  re- 
ceived. Then,  after  promising  to  obey  the  Pope,  he  received  the  kiss 
of  peace,  and  the  two  took  communion  together  in  the  castle  chapel. 


136  GERMANY 

1076-1100 

But  the  kiss  of  peace  at  Canossa  did  not  for  long  preserve 
friendly  relations  between  Pope  and  emperor.  Henry  gave  protec- 
tion to  some  of  Gregory's  Lombard  enemies,  and  Gregory  on  his 
side  continued  to  urge  the  Saxons  to  revolt  against  the  emperor's 
authority.  Finally  the  German  princes,  encouraged  by  the  Pope, 
proclaimed  Rudolf  of  Suabia  king  in  Henry's  place.  The  latter, 
supported  by  the  Lombards,  hastened  back  to  Germany.  A  terrible 
war  ensued,  which  lasted  for  more  than  two  years,  and  was  charac- 
terized by  barbarities  on  both  sides,  Gregory  a  second  time  excom- 
municated the  king,  but  without  political  effect.  The  war  terminated 
in  1080  by  the  death  of  Rudolf  in  battle,  and  Henry's  authority 
became  gradually  established  throughout  Germany. 

His  first  movement  now  was  against  the  Pope.  He  crossed 
the  Alps  with  a  large  army,  was  crowned  King  of  Lombardy,  and 
then  marched  toward  Rome.  Gregory's  only  friend  was  the  Coun- 
tess Matilda  of  Tuscany,  who  resisted  Henry's  advances  until  the 
cities  of  Pisa  and  Lucca  espoused  his  cause.  Then  he  laid  siege  to 
Rome,  and  a  long  war  began,  during  which  the  ancient  city  suffered 
more  than  it  had  endured  for  centuries.  The  end  of  the  struggle 
was  a  devastation  worse  than  that  inflicted  by  Geiseric.  When 
Henry  finally  gained  possession  of  the  city,  and  the  Pope  was  be- 
sieged in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  the  latter  released  Robert  Guis- 
card,  chief  of  the  Normans  in  southern  Italy,  from  the  ban  of  excom- 
munication which  he  had  pronounced  against  him,  and  called  him 
to  his  aid.  A  Norman  army,  numbering  thirty-six  thousand  men, 
mostly  Saracens,  approached  Rome,  and  Henry  was  compelled  to 
retreat.  The  Pope  was  released,  but  his  allies  burned  all  the  city 
between  the  Lateran  and  the  Coliseum,  slaughtered  thousands  of  the 
inhabitants,  carried  away  thousands  as  slaves,  and  left  a  desert  of 
blood  and  ruin  behind  them.  Gregory  VH.  did  not  remain  in 
Rome  after  their  departure:  he  accompanied  them  to  Salerno, 
and  there  died  in  1085.  His  last  words  were :  "  I  have  loved  justice 
and  hated  iniquity,  therefore  I  die  in  exile." 

Henry  IV.  immediately  appointed  a  new  Pope,  Clement  III., 
by  whom  he  was  crowned  emperor  in  St.  Peter's.  After  Gregory's 
death  the  Normans  and  the  French  selected  another  Pope,  Urban 
II.,  and  until  both  died,  fifteen  years  afterward,  they  and  their 
partisans  never  ceased  fighting.  The  Emperor  Henry,  however, 
who  returned  to  Germany  immediately  after  his  coronation,  took 
little  part  in  this  quarrel.     The  last  twenty  years  of  his  reign  were 


FRANCONIAN     EMPERORS  1S7 

1100-1106 

full  of  trouble  and  misfortune.  His  eldest  son,  Conrad,  who  had 
lived  mostly  in  Lombardy,  was  in  1092  persuaded  to  claim  the  crown 
of  Italy,  was  acknowledged  by  the  hostile  Pope,  and  allied  himself 
with  his  father's  enemies.  For  a  time  he  was  very  successful,  but  the 
movement  gradually  failed,  and  he  ended  his  days  in  prison  in  iioi. 

Henry's  hopes  were  now  turned  to  his  younger  son,  Henry, 
who  was  of  a  cold,  calculating,  treacherous  disposition.  The  politi- 
cal and  religious  foes  of  the  emperor  were  still  actively  scheming 
for  his  overthrow,  and  they  succeeded  in  making  the  young  Henry 
their  instrument,  as  they  had  made  his  brother  Conrad.  During 
the  long  struggles  of  his  reign  the  emperor's  strongest  and  most 
faithful  supporter  had  been  Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen,  a  Suabian 
count  to  whom  he  had  given  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and  whom 
he  finally  made  Duke  of  Suabia.  The  latter  died  in  1104,  and  most 
of  the  German  princes,  with  the  young  Henry  at  their  head,  arose 
in  rebellion.  For  nearly  a  year  the  country  was  again  desolated 
by  a  furious  civil  war;  but  the  cities  along  the  Rhine,  which  were 
rapidly  increasing  in  wealth  and  population,  took  the  emperor's 
side,  as  before,  and  enabled  him  to  keep  the  field  against  his  son. 
At  last,  in  December,  1105,  their  armies  lay  face  to  face  near  the 
River  Moselle,  and  an  interview  took  place  between  the  two.  Father 
and  son  embraced  each  other;  tears  were  shed,  repentance  offered, 
and  pardon  given;  then  both  set  out  together  for  Mayence,  where 
it  was  agreed  that  a  national  diet  should  settle  all  difficulties. 

On  the  way,  however,  the  treacherous  son  persuaded  his  father 
to  rest  in  the  castle  of  Bockelheim,  there  instantly  shut  the  gates 
upon  him  and  held  him  prisoner  until  he  compelled  him  to  abdicate. 
But  after  this  act  the  emperor  succeeded  in  making  his  escape :  the 
people  rallied  to  his  support,  and  he  was  still  unconquered  when 
death  came  to  end  his  many  troubles,  in  Liege,  in  August,  1106. 
He  was  perhaps  the  most  signally  unfortunate  of  all  the  German 
emperors.  The  errors  of  his  education,  the  follies  and  passions  of 
his  youth,  the  one  fatal  weakness  of  his  manhood,  were  gradually 
corrected  by  experience;  but  he  could  not  undo  their  consequences. 
After  he  had  become  comparatively  wise  and  energetic  the  internal 
dissensions  of  Germany  and  the  conflict  between  the  Catholic  Church 
and  the  imperial  power  had  grown  too  strong  to  be  suppressed  by 
his  hand.  When  he  might  have  done  right,  he  lacked  either  the 
knowledge  or  the  will ;  when  he  finally  tried  to  do  right,  he  had  lost 
the  power. 


1S8  GERMANY 

1106 

During  the  latter  years  of  his  reign  occurred  a  great  historical 
event,  the  consequences  of  which  were  most  important  to  Europe, 
though  not  immediately  so  to  Germany.  Peter  the  Hermit  preached 
a  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land  for  the  purpose  of  conquering  Jerusalem 
from  the  Saracens.  The  "  Congregation  of  Cluny  "  had  prepared 
the  way  for  this  movement;  one  of  the  two  Popes,  Urban  H.,  en- 
couraged it,  and  finally  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  (of  the  ducal  family  of 
Lorraine)  put  himself  at  its  head.  The  soldiers  of  this,  the  first 
crusade,  came  chiefly  from  France,  Burgundy,  and  Italy.  Although 
many  of  them  passed  through  Germany  on  their  way  to  the  East, 
they  made  few  recruits  among  the  people;  but  the  success  of  the 
undertaking,  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Godfrey  in  1099,  and  the 
religious  enthusiasm  which  it  created,  tended  greatly  to  strengthen 
the  Papal  power,  and  also  that  faction  in  the  church  which  was  hos- 
tile to  Henry  IV. 


X    .1 


Chapter  XVI 

END  OF  THE  FRANCONIAN  DYNASTY,  AND  RISE  OF 
THE  HOHENSTAUFENS.     1106-1152 

HENRY  V.  showed  his  true  character  immediately  after  his 
accession  to  the  throne.  Although  he  had  been  previously 
supported  by  the  Papal  party,  he  was  no  sooner  acknowl- 
edged King  of  Germany  than  he  imitated  his  father  in  opposing  the 
claims  of  the  church.  The  new  Pope,  Paschal  II.,  had  recognized 
the  bishops  whom  Henry  IV.  had  appointed,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  issued  a  manifesto  declaring  that  all  future  appointments  must 
come  from  him.  Henry  V.  answered  this  with  a  letter  of  defiance, 
and  continued  to  select  his  own  bishops  and  abbots,  which  the  Pope, 
not  being  able  to  resist,  was  obliged  to  suffer. 

During  the  disturbed  fifty  years  of  Henry  IV.'s  reign  Burgundy 
and  Italy  had  become  practically  independent  of  Germany ;  Hungary 
and  Poland  had  thrown  off  their  dependent  condition,  and  even  the 
Wends  beyond  the  Elbe  were  no  longer  loyal  to  the  empire. 
Within  the  German  states  the  imperial  power  was  already  so  much 
weakened  by  the  establishment  of  hereditary  dukes  and  counts  not 
related  to  the  ruling  family  that  the  king  (or  emperor)  exercised 
very  little  direct  authority  over  the  people.  The  crown  lands  had 
been  mostly  either  given  away  in  exchange  for  assistance,  or  lost 
during  the  civil  wars :  the  feudal  system  was  firmly  fastened  upon 
the  country,  and  only  a  few  free  cities — like  those  in  Italy — kept 
alive  the  ancient  spirit  of  liberty  and  political  equality.  Under  such 
a  system  a  monarch  could  accomplish  little,  unless  he  was  both  wiser 
and  stronger  than  the  reigning  princes  under  him;  there  was  no 
general  national  sentiment  to  which  he  could  appeal.  Henry  V. 
was  cold,  stern,  heartless,  and  unprincipled ;  but  he  inspired  a  whole- 
some fear  among  his  princely  "  vassals,"  and  kept  them  in  better 
order  than  his  father  had  done. 

After  giving  the  first  years  of  his  reign  to  the  settlement  of 
troubles  on  the  frontiers  of  the  empire,  Henry  V.  prepared,  in  11 10, 
for  a  journey  to  Italy.     So  many  followers  came  to  him  that  when 

139 


140  GERMANY 

1110-1114 

he  had  crossed  the  Alps  and  mustered  them  on  the  plains  of  Pia- 
cenza  there  were  thirty  thousand  knights  present.  With  such  a 
force  no  resistance  was  possible.  The  Lombard  cities  acknowledged 
him;  Countess  Matilda  of  Tuscany  followed  their  example;  and 
the  Pope  met  him  in  a  friendly  spirit.  The  latter  was  willing  to 
crown  Henry  as  emperor,  but  still  claimed  the  right  of  investing 
the  bishops.  This  Henry  positively  refused  to  grant,  and,  after 
much  deliberation,  the  Pope  finally  proposed  an  arrangement  ab- 
solutely revolutionary  in  its  character  and  amounting  to  a  com- 
plete separation  of  church  and  state.  The  church  was  to  surrender 
to  the  crown  all  the  landed  possessions  and  rights  of  the  empire 
which  had  come  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy  since  the  time  of 
Charlemagne.  Whole  counties  were  thus  to  be  surrendered,  and 
priests  were  no  longer  to  be  princes,  no  longer  to  hold  feudal  estates, 
nor  to  exercise  temporal  powers  of  government.  On  the  contrary, 
the  clergy  were  to  content  themselves  with  tithes  and  pious  offerings. 
The  king,  in  return,  was  to  relinquish  the  right  of  investiture; 
things  temporal  were  to  be  wholly  separated  from  things  spiritual. 
Although  the  change  would  be  attended  with  some  difficulty  in 
Germany,  Henry  consented,  and  the  long  quarrel  between  Pope 
and  emperor  was  apparently  settled. 

On  February  12,  mi,  the  king  entered  Rome  at  the  head 
of  a  magnificent  procession,  and  was  met  at  the  gate  of  St.  Peter's 
by  the  Pope,  who  walked  with  him  hand  in  hand  to  the  plat- 
form before  the  high  altar.  But  when  the  latter  read  aloud  the 
agreement,  the  bishops  and  other  clergy  raised  their  voices  in  angry 
dissent.  They  had  no  mind  to  lose  their  great  estates  and  were 
wild  with  excitement;  they  even  declared  Paschal  guilty  of  heresy. 
The  debate  lasted  so  long  that  one  of  the  German  knights  cried  out : 
"  Why  so  many  words?  Our  king  means  to  be  crowned  emperor, 
like  Karl  the  Great  f "  The  Pope  refused  the  act  of  coronation, 
and  was  immediately  made  prisoner.  The  people  of  Rome  rose 
in  arms,  and  a  terrible  fight  ensued.  Henry  narrowly  escaped 
death  in  the  streets,  and  was  compelled  to  encamp  outside  the 
city.  At  the  end  of  two  months  the  resistance  both  of  Pope  and 
people  was  crushed ;  Henry  was  crowned  emperor,  and  Paschal  11. 
gave  up  his  claim  for  the  investiture  of  the  bishops. 

Henry  V.  returned  immediately  to  Germany,  defeated  the  re- 
bellious Thuringians  and  Saxons  in  1 113,  and  the  following  year 
was  married  to  Matilda,  daughter  of  Henry  I.  of  England.     This 


THE     HOHENSTAUFENS 


141 


1114-1122 

was  the  climax  of  his  power  and  splendor.  It  was  soon  followed 
by  troubles  with  Friesland,  Cologne,  Thuringia,  and  Saxony,  and 
in  the  course  of  two  years  his  authority  was  set  at  naught  over 
nearly  all  northern  Germany.  Only  Suabia,  under  his  nephew, 
Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen,  and  Duke  Welf  II.  of  Bavaria,  re- 
mained faithful  to  him. 

He  was  obliged  to  leave  Germany  in  this  state  and  hasten  to 
Italy  in  1116,  on  account  of  the  death  of  the  Countess  Matilda,  who 
had  bequeathed  Tuscany  to  the  church,  although  she  had  previously 
acknowledged  the  imperial  sovereignty.  Henry  claimed  and  se- 
cured possession  of  her  territory;  he  then  visited  Rome,  the  Pope 
leaving  the  city  to  avoid  meeting  him.  The  latter  died  soon  after- 
ward, and  for  a  time  a  new  Pope,  of  the  emperor's  own  appoint- 
ment, was  installed  in  the  Vatican.  The  Papal  party,  which  now 
included  all  the  French  bishops,  immediately  elected  another,  who 
excommunicated  Henry  V. ;  but  the  act  was  of  no  consequence,  and 
was  in  fact  overlooked  by  Calixtus  II.,  who  succeeded  to  the  Papal 
chair  in  11 18. 

The  same  year  Henry  returned  to  Germany  and  succeeded, 
chiefly  through  the  aid  of  Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen,  in  establish-, 
ing  his  authority.  The  quarrel  with  the  Papal  power  concerning 
the  investiture  of  the  bishops  was  still  unsettled;  the  new  Pope, 
Calixtus  IL,  who  was  a  Burgundian  and  a  relative  of  the  emperor, 
remained  in  France,  where  his  claims  were  supported.  After  long 
delays  and  many  preliminary  negotiations,  a  diet  was  held  at  Worms 
in  September,  1122,  when  the  question  was  finally  settled.  The 
election  and  appointment  of  the  bishops  and  their  investiture  with 
the  ring  and  crozier  were  given  to  the  Pope,  but  the  elections  were 
required  to  be  made  in  the  emperor's  presence ;  then  the  emperor  was 
to  confer  upon  them  their  temporal  powers  and  their  feudal  estates 
by  a  special  investiture  with  the  scepter ;  this  imperial  ceremony  was 
to  precede  the  final  consecration  of  the  bishop  by  the  Pope.  This 
arrangement  is  known  as  the  Concordat  of  Worms.  Although  in 
every  sense  a  compromise,  the  advantage  nevertheless  lay  with  the 
Papacy;  the  spiritual  principalities  in  Germany  were  greatly  eman- 
cipated frc«Ti  the  authority  of  the  crown;  the  emperor's  right  of 
approving  by  his  presence  the  nominee  of  the  church  was  very  differ- 
ent from  having  the  nomination  of  the  candidate  in  his  own  hand. 
The  Concordat  of  Worms  was  hailed  at  the  time  as  a  fortunate  set- 
tlement of  a  strife  which  had  lasted  for  fifty  years.     In  the  Rhine 


142  GERMANY 

1122-1125 

meadows  near  Worms  the  document  was  finally  signed.  The  Papal 
legate  extended  to  the  emperor  the  kiss  of  peace  and  administered 
to  him  the  holy  sacrament  of  communion.  The  ban  was  thereby 
loosed  and  Henry  V.  was  received  back  into  the  arms  of  the  church. 

The  troubles  in  northern  Germany,  however,  were  not  subdued 
by  this  final  peace  with  Rome.  Henry  V.  died  at  Utrecht,  in 
Holland,  in  May,  1125,  leaving  no  children,  which  the  people  be- 
lieved to  be  a  punishment  for  his  unnatural  treatment  of  his  father. 
He  was  buried  in  the  magnificent  newly  constructed  cathedral  of 
Speyer,  one  of  the  first  of  the  great  triumphs  of  church  archi- 
tecture in  Germany.  There  was  no  one  to  mourn  his  death,  for 
even  his  efforts  to  increase  the  imperial  authority,  and  thereby 
to  create  a  national  sentiment  among  the  Germans,  were  neutralized 
by  his  coldness,  haughtiness,  and  want  of  principle  as  a  man.  The 
people  were  forced  by  the  necessities  of  their  situation  to  support 
their  own  reigning  princes,  in  the  hope  of  regaining  from  the 
latter  some  of  their  lost  political  rights. 

Another  circumstance  tended  to  prevent  the  German  emperors 
from  acquiring  any  fixed  power.  They  had  no  capital  city,  such  as 
France  already  possessed  in  Paris.  After  the  coronation  the  mon- 
arch immediately  commenced  his  "  royal  ride,"  visiting  all  portions 
of  the  country,  and  receiving,  personally,  the  allegiance  of  the  whole 
people.  Then  during  his  reign  he  was  constantly  migrating  from 
one  castle  to  another,  either  to  settle  local  difficulties,  to  collect  the 
income  of  his  scattered  estates,  or  for  his  own  pleasure.  There  was 
thus  no  central  point  to  which  the  Germans  could  look  as  the  seat 
of  the  imperial  rule.  The  emperor  was  a  Frank,  a  Saxon,  a  Bavarian, 
or  Suabian,  by  turns,  but  never  permanently  a  German  with  a  na- 
tional capital  grander  than  any  of  the  petty  courts. 

Henry  V.  left  all  his  estates  and  treasures  to  his  nephew,  Fred- 
erick of  Hohenstaufen,  but  not  the  crown  jewels  and  insignia, 
which  were  to  be  bestowed  by  the  national  diet  upon  his  successor. 
Frederick  and  his  brother  Conrad,  Duke  of  Franconia,  were  the 
natural  heirs  to  the  crown;  but,  as  the  Hohenstaufen  family  had 
stood  faithfully  by  Henry  IV.  and  V.  in  their  conflicts  with  the 
Pope,  it  was  unpopular  with  the  priests  and  reigning  princes.  At 
the  diet  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence  nominated  Lothar  of  Saxony, 
who  was  chosen  after  a  very  stormy  session.  His  first  acts  were  to 
beg  the  Pope  to  confirm  his  election,  and  then  to  give  up  his  right 
to  have  the  bishops  and  abbots  elected  in  his  presence.     He  next 


THE     HOHENSTAUFENS  143 

1125-1138 

demanded  of  Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen  the  royal  estates  which  the 
latter  had  inherited  from  Henry  V.  Being  defeated  in  the  war 
which  followed,  he  strengthened  his  party  by  marrying  his  only 
daughter,  Gertrude,  to  Henry  the  Proud,  Duke  of  Bavaria  (grand- 
son of  Duke  Welf,  Henry  IV.'s  friend,  whence  this  family  was  called 
the  Welfs  or  Guelphs).  By  this  marriage  Henry  the  Proud  became 
also  Duke  of  Saxony ;  but  a  part  of  the  dukedom,  called  the  North 
Mark,  was  separated  and  given  to  a  Saxon  noble,  a  friend  of  Lothar, 
named  Albert  the  Bear. 

Lothar  was  called  to  Italy  in  1132  by  Innocent  II.,  one  of  two 
Popes  who,  in  consequence  of  a  division  in  the  College  of  Cardinals, 
had  been  chosen  at  the  same  time.  The  emperor  was  crowned  in  the 
Lateran,  in  June,  1133,  while  the  other  Pope,  Anaclete  IL,  was 
reigning  in  the  Vatican.  He  acquired  the  territory  of  the  Countess 
Matilda  of  Tuscany,  but  only  on  condition  of  paying  four  hundred 
pounds  of  silver  annually  to  the  church.  The  former  state  of  affairs 
was  thus  suddenly  reversed:  the  emperor  acknowledged  himself  a 
dependent  of  the  temporal  Papal  power.  When  he  returned  to 
Germany  the  same  year  Lothar  succeeded  in  subduing  the  resist- 
ance of  the  Hohenstaufens,  and  then  bound  the  reigning  princes  of 
Germany,  by  solemn  oath,  to  keep  the  peace  for  the  term  of  twelve 
years. 

This  truce  enabled  him  to  return  to  Italy  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  Pope  Innocent,  who  had  been  expelled  from  Rome.  Inno- 
cent's rival,  Anaclete  II.,  was  supported  by  the  Norman  king,  Roger 
II.  of  Sicily,  who,  in  the  summer  of  1137,  was  driven  out  of  south- 
ern Italy  by  Lothar's  army.  But  quarrels  broke  out  with  the  Pisans, 
who  were  his  allies,  and  with  Pope  Innocent,  for  whose  cause  he 
was  fighting,  and  Lothar  finally  set  out  for  Germany,  without  even 
visiting  Rome.  At  Trient,  in  the  Tyrol,  he  was  seized  with  a  mortal 
sickness,  and  died  on  the  Brenner  Pass  of  the  Alps,  in  a  shepherd's 
hut.  His  body  was  taken  to  Saxony  and  buried  in  the  chapel  of  a 
monastery  which  he  had  founded  there. 

A  national  diet  was  called  to  meet  in  May,  11 38,  and  elect  a 
successor.  Lothar's  son-in-law,  Henry  the  Proud,  Duke  of  Ba- 
varia, Saxony,  and  Tuscany  (which  the  emperor  had  transferred 
to  him),  seemed  to  have  the  greatest  right  to  the  throne ;  but  he  was 
already  so  important  that  the  jealousy  of  the  other  reigning  princes 
was  excited  against  him.  Their  policy  was  to  choose  a  weak  rather 
than  a  strong  ruler — one  who  would  not  interfere  with  the  author- 


144  GERMANY 

1138-1142 

ity  in  their  own  lands.  Conrad  of  Hohenstaufen  took  advantage  of 
this  jealousy ;  he  courted  the  favor  of  the  princes  and  the  bishops, 
and  was  chosen  and  crowned  by  the  latter,  three  months  before  the 
time  fixed  for  the  meeting  of  the  diet.  The  movement,  though  in 
violation  of  all  law,  succeeded  perfectly :  a  new  diet  was  called,  for 
form's  sake,  and  all  the  German  princes,  except  Henry  the  Proud, 
acquiesced  in  Conrad's  election  as  Conrad  III. 

In  order  to  maintain  his  place  the  new  king  was  compelled  to 
break  the  power  of  his  rival.  He  therefore  declared  that  Henry 
the  Proud  should  not  be  allowed  to  govern  two  lands  at  the  same 
time,  and  gave  all  Saxony  to  Albert  the  Bear.  When  Henry  rose 
in  resistance  Conrad  proclaimed  that  he  had  forfeited  Bavaria, 
which  he  gave  to  Leopold  of  Austria.  In  this  emergency  Henry 
the  Proud  called  upon  the  Saxons  to  help  him,  and  had  raised  a  con- 
siderable force  when  he  suddenly  died,  toward  the  end  of  the  year 
1 139.  His  brother,  Welf,  continued  the  struggle  in  Bavaria,  in 
the  interest  of  his  young  son,  Henry,  afterward  called  "  the  Lion." 
He  attempted  to  raise  the  siege  of  the  town  of  Weinsberg,  which 
was  beleaguered  by  Conrad's  army,  but  failed.  The  tradition  re- 
lates that  when  the  town  was  forced  to  surrender  the  women  sent  a 
deputation  to  Conrad,  begging  to  be  allowed  to  leave  with  such 
goods  as  they  could  carry  on  their  backs.  When  this  was  granted 
and  the  gates  were  opened,  they  came  out,  carrying  their  husbands, 
sons,  or  brothers  as  their  dearest  possessions. 
I  In  this  struggle,  for  the  first  time  the  names  of  Welf  and  Wai- 
blinger  (from  the  little  town  of  Waiblingen,  in  Wurtemberg,  which 
belonged  to  the  Hohenstaufens)  were  first  used  as  party  cries  in 
battle.  In  the  Italian  language  they  became  "  Guelph  "  and  "  Ghi- 
belline,"  and  for  hundreds  of  years  they  retained  an  intense  and 
powerful  significance.  The  term  Welf  (Guelph)  very  soon  came 
to  mean  the  party  of  the  Pope,  and  Waiblinger  (Ghibelline)  that  of 
the  German  emperor.  The  end  of  this  first  conflict  was  that,  in 
1 142,  young  Henry  the  Lion  (great-grandson  of  Duke  Welf  of 
Bavaria)  was  allowed  to  be  Duke  of  Saxony.  From  him  descended 
the  later  dukes  of  Brunswick  and  Hanover,  who  retained  the  family 
name  of  Welf,  or  Guelph,  which,  through  George  I.,  is  also  that  of 
the  royal  family  of  England  at  this  day.  Albert  the  Bear  was 
obliged  to  be  satisfied  with  the  North  Mark,  which  was  extended  to 
the  eastward  of  the  Elbe  and  made  an  independent  principality.  He 
called  himself  Markgraf  (border  count)  of  Brandenburg,  and  thus 


THE     HOHENSTAUFENS  145 

1142-1149 

laid  the  basis  of  a  new  state,  which,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  de- 
veloped into  Prussia. 

About  this  time  the  Christian  monarchy  in  Jerusalem  began  to 
be  threatened  with  overthrow  by  the  Saracens,  and  the  Pope,  Eugene 
III.,  responded  to  the  appeals  for  help  from  the  Holy  Land  by  call- 
ing for  a  second  crusade.  He  not  only  promised  forgiveness  of 
all  sins,  but  released  the  volunteers  from  payment  of  their  debts  and 
whatever  obligations  they  might  have  contracted  under  oath. 
France  was  the  first  to  answer  the  call ;  then  Bernard  of  Clairvaux 
visited  Germany  and  made  passionate  appeals  to  the  people.  The 
first  effect  of  his  speeches  was  the  plunder  and  murder  of  the  Jews 
in  the  cities  along  the  Rhine;  then  the  slow  German  blood  was 
roused  to  enthusiasm  for  the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  the 
impulse  became  so  great  that  King  Conrad  was  compelled  to  join 
in  the  movement.  His  nephew,  the  red-bearded  Frederick  of  Sua- 
bia,  also  put  the  cross  on  his  mantle ;  nearly  all  the  German  princes 
and  many  of  the  common  people,  except  the  Saxons,  followed 
the  example. 

In  May,  1147,  the  crusaders  assembled  at  Ratisbon.  There 
were  present  seventy  thousand,  horsemen  in  armor,  without  counting 
the  foot  soldiers  and  followers.  All  the  robber  bands  and  notorious 
criminals  of  Germany  joined  the  army.  Conrad  led  the  march  down 
the  Danube,  through  Austria  and  Thrace,  to  Constantinople.  Louis 
VII.,  King  of  France,  followed  him,  with  a  nearly  equal  force, 
leaving  the  German  states  through  which  he  passed  in  a  famished 
condition.  The  two  armies,  united  at  Constantinople,  advanced 
through  Asia  Minor,  but  were  so  reduced  by  battles,  disease,  and 
hardships  on  the  way  that  the  few  who  reached  Palestine  were  too 
weak  to  reconquer  the  ground  lost  by  the  King  of  Jerusalem. 

During  the  year  1149  the  German  princes  returned  from  the 
East  with  their  few  surviving  followers.  The  loss  of  so  many  rob- 
bers and  robber  knights  was  nevertheless  a  great  gain  to  the  coun- 
try: the  people  enjoyed  more  peace  and  security  than  they  had 
known  for  a  long  time.  Duke  Welf  of  Bavaria  (brother  of  Henry 
the  Proud)  was  the  first  to  reach  Germany.  Conrad,  fearing  that 
he  would  make  trouble,  sent  after  him  the  young  Duke  of  Suabia, 
Frederick  Red-Beard  (Barbarossa)  of  Hohenstaufen.  It  was  not 
long,  in  fact,  before  the  war-cries  of  "  Guelph !  "  and  "  Ghibelline !  " 
were  again  heard ;  but  Welf,  as  well  as  his  nephew,  Henry  the  Lion 
of  Saxony,  was  defeated.  During  the  crusade  the  latter  had  carried 


146 


GERMANY 


1149-1152 

on  a  war  against  the  Wends  and  other  Slavonic  tribes  in  Prussia, 
the  chief  result  of  which  was  the  foundation  of  the  city  of  Liibeck. 
Conrad  III.  now  determined  to  pay  his  delayed  visit  to  Rome, 
and  be  crowned  emperor.  Immediately  after  his  return  from  the 
East  he  had  received  a  pressing  invitation  from  the  Roman  senate 
to  come,  to  recognize  the  new  order  of  things  in  the  ancient  city, 
and  make  it  the  permanent  capital  of  the  united  German  and  Italian 
Empire.  Arnold  of  Brescia,  who  for  years  had  been  advocating  the 
separation  of  the  Papacy  from  all  temporal  power,  and  the  reestab- 
lishment  of  the  Catholic  Church  upon  the  democratic  basis  of  the 
early  Christian  Church,  had  compelled  the  Pope,  Eugene  III.,  to 
accept  his  doctrine.  Rome  was  practically  a  republic,  and  Arnold's 
reform,  although  fiercely  opposed  by  the  bishops,  abbots,  and  all 
priests  holding  civil  power,  made  more  and  more  headway  among 
the  people.  At  a  national  diet,  held  at  Wiirzburg  in  1151,  it  was 
decided  that  Conrad  should  go  to  Rome,  and  the  Pope  was  officially 
informed  of  his  intention.  But  before  the  preparations  for  the 
journey  were  completed  Conrad  died,  in  February,  1152,  at  Bam- 
berg.    He  was  buried  there  in  the  cathedral  built  by  Henry  II. 


Chapter    XVII 

THE  REIGN  OF  FREDERICK  BARBAROSSA.   1152-1197 

CONRAD  left  only  an  infant  son  at  his  death,  and  the  Ger- 
man princes,  who  were  learning  a  little  wisdom  by  this  time, 
determined  not  to  renew  the  unfortunate  experiences  of 
Henry  IV.'s  minority.  The  next  heir  to  the  throne  was  Frederick 
of  Suabia,  who  was  now  thirty-one  years  old,  handsome,  popular, 
and  already  renowned  as  a  warrior.  He  was  elected  immediately, 
without  opposition,  and  solemnly  crowned  at  Aix-la-Chapelle. 
When  he  made  his  "  royal  ride  "  through  Germany,  according  to 
custom,  the  people  hailed  him  with  acclamations,  hoping  for  peace 
and  a  settled  authority  after  so  many  civil  wars.  His  mother  was 
a  Welf  princess,  whence  there  seemed  a  possibility  of  terminating 
the  rivalry  between  Welf  and  Waiblinger  in  his  election.  The 
Italians  always  called  him  "  Barbarossa,"  on  account  of  his  red 
beard,  and  by  this  name  he  is  best  known  in  history. 

Since  the  accession  of  Otto  the  Great  no  German  monarch  had 
been  crowned  under  such  favorable  auspices,  and  none  had  possessed 
so  many  of  the  qualities  of  a  great  ruler.  He  was  shrewd, 
clear-sighted,  intelligent,  and  of  an  iron  will ;  he  enjoyed  the  exercise 
of  power,  and  the  aim  of  his  life  was  to  extend  and  secure  it.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  was  despotic,  merciless  in  his  revenge,  and  some- 
times led  by  the  violence  of  his  passions  to  commit  deeds  which 
darkened  his  name  and  interfered  with  his  plans  of  empire. 

Frederick  I.  first  assured  to  the  German  princes  the  rights 
which  they  already  possessed  as  German  princes,  coupled  with 
the  declaration  that  he  meant  to  exact  the  full  and  strict  perform- 
ance of  their  duties  to  him  as  king.  On  his  first  royal  journey  he 
arbitrated  between  Swen  and  Canute,  rival  claimants  to  the  throne 
of  Denmark,  conferred  on  the  Duke  of  Bohemia  the  title  of  king, 
and  took  measures  to  settle  the  quarrel  between  Henry  the  Lion  of 
Saxony  and  Henry  of  Austria,  for  the  possession  of  Bavaria.  In 
all  these  matters  he  showed  the  will,  the  decision,  and  the  imposing 

147 


148  GERMANY 

1152-1156 

personal  bearing  of  one  who  felt  that  he  was  born  to  rule ;  and  had 
he  remained  in  Germany  he  might  have  consolidated  the  states  into 
one  nation.  But  the  phantom  of  a  Roman  Empire  beckoned  him  to 
Italy.  The  invitation  held  out  to  Conrad  was  not  renewed,  for 
Pope  Eugene  III.  was  dead,  and  his  successor,  Adrian  IV.  (an  Eng- 
lishman, by  the  name  of  Breakspeare),  rejected  Arnold  of  Brescia's 
doctrines.  It  was  in  Frederick's  power  to  secure  the  success  of 
either  side;  but  his  first  aim  was  the  imperial  crown,  and  he  could 
only  g^in  it  without  delay  by  assisting  the  Pope. 

In  1 1 54  Frederick,  accompanied  by  Henry  the  Lion  and  many 
other  princes,  and  a  large  army,  crossed  the  Brenner  Pass,  in  the 
Tyrol,  and  descended  into  Italy.  According  to  old  custom  the  first 
camp  was  pitched  on  the  Roncalian  Fields,  near  Piacenza,  and  the 
royal  shield  was  set  up  as  a  sign  that  the  chief  ruler  was  present  and 
ready  to  act  as  judge  in  all  political  troubles.  Many  complaints 
were  brought  to  him  against  the  city  of  Milan,  which  had  become  a 
haughty  and  despotic  republic,  and  began  to  oppress  Lodi,  Como, 
and  other  neighboring  cities.  Frederick  saw  plainly  the  trouble 
which  this  independent  movement  in  Lombardy  would  give  to  him 
or  his  successors ;  but  after  losing  two  months  and  many  troops  in 
besieging  and  destroying  Tortona,  one  of  the  towns  friendly  to 
Milan,  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  attack  the  latter  city ;  so,  having 
been  crowned  King  of  Lombardy  at  Pavia,  he  marched,  in  1155, 
toward  Rome. 

At  Viterbo  he  met  Pope  Adrian  IV.,  and  negotiations  com- 
menced in  regard  to  his  coronation  as  emperor,  which,  it  seems, 
was  not  to  be  had  for  nothing.  Adrian's  first  demand  was  the  sup- 
pression of  the  Roman  republic,  which  had  driven  him  from  the 
city.  Frederick  answered  by  capturing  Arnold  of  Brescia,  who 
was  then  in  Tuscany,  and  delivering  him  into  the  Pope's  hands. 
The  Pope  then  demanded  that  Frederick  should  hold  his  stirrup 
when  he  mounted  his  mule.  This  humiliation,  second  only  to  that 
which  Henry  IV.  endured  at  Canossa,  was  accepted  by  the  proud 
Hohenstaufen,  in  his  ambitious  haste  to  be  crowned ;  but  even  then 
Rome  had  to  be  first  taken  from  the  republicans.  By  some  means 
an  entrance  was  forced  into  the  part  of  the  city  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Tiber;  Frederick  was  crowned  in  all  haste  and  immediately 
retreated,  but  not  before  he  and  his  escort  were  furiously  attacked 
in  the  streets  by  the  Roman  people.  Henry  the  Lion,  by  his  bravery 
and  presence  of  mind,  saved  the  new  emperor  from  being  slain. 


FREDERICK  BARBAROSSA      149 

1156 

Arnold  of  Brescia  was  afterward,  without  the  knowledge  either  of 
the  Pope  or  of  the  new  emperor,  taken  from  prison  by  a  personal 
enemy  and  hanged.  His  body  was  burned  and  his  ashes  thrown 
into  the  Tiber. 

Meanwhile  the  hostility  of  the  Roman  people  and  the  heats 
of  summer  and  the  fevers  they  brought  decided  Frederick  to  leave 
Italy  and  return  to  Germany.  The  glory  of  his  coming  was  already 
exhausted.  He  fought  his  way  through  Spoleto;  Verona  shut  its 
gates  upon  him,  and  one  robber  castle  in  the  Alps  held  the  whole 
army  at  bay  until  it  was  taken  by  Otto  of  Wittelsbach.  The  un- 
natural composition  of  the  later  Roman  Empire  was  again  dem- 
onstrated. If  during  the  four  centuries  which  had  elapsed  since 
Charlemagne's  succession  to  power  the  German  rule  was  the  curse 
of  Italy,  Italy  (or  the  fancied  necessity  of  ruling  Italy)  was  no  less 
a  curse  to  Germany.  The  strength  of  the  German  people  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  was  exhausted  in  endeavoring  to  keep  up  a  high- 
sounding  sovereignty,  which  they  could  not  truly  possess,  and — in 
the  best  interests  of  the  two  countries — ought  certainly  not  to  have 
possessed. 

On  returning  to  Germany  Frederick  found  enough  to  do.  He 
restored  the  internal  peace  and  security  of  the  country  with  a  strong 
hand,  executing  the  robber  knights,  tearing  down  their  castles,  and 
even  obliging  fourteen  reigning  princes,  among  whom  was  the 
Archbishop  of  Mayence,  to  undergo  what  was  considered  the  shame- 
ful punishment  of  carrying  dogs  in  their  arms  before  the  imperial 
palace.  By  his  second  marriage  with  Beatrix,  Princess  of  Bur- 
gundy, he  established  anew  the  German  authority  over  that  large 
and  rich  kingdom ;  while  at  a  diet  held  in  1 1 56  he  gave  Bavaria  to 
Henry  the  Lion,  and  pacified  Henry  of  Austria  by  making  his  terri- 
tory an  independent  dukedom.  This  was  the  second  phase  in  the 
growth  of  Austria. 

Henry  the  Lion,  however,  was  more  a  Saxon  than  a  Bavarian. 
Although  he  first  raised  Munich  from  an  insignificant  cluster  of 
peasants'  huts  to  the  dignity  of  a  city,  his  energies  were  chiefly 
directed  toward  extending  his  sway  from  the  Elbe  eastward  along 
the  Baltic.  He  conquered  Mecklenburg  and  colonized  the  country 
with  Saxons,  made  Liibeck  an  important  commercial  center,  and 
slowly  Germanized  the  former  territory  of  the  Wends.  Albert  the 
Bear,  Count  of  Brandenburg,  followed  a  similar  policy,  and  both 
were  encouraged  by  the  emperor,  who  was  quite  willing  to  see  his 


150  GERMANY 

1156-1160 

own  sway  thus  extended.     A  rhyme  current  among  the  common 
people  at  the  time  says: 

"Henry  the  Lion  and  Albert  the  Bear, 
Thereto  Frederick  with  the  red  hair. 
Three  lords  are  they, 
Who  could  change  the  world  to  their  way." 

The  grand  imperial  character  of  Frederick,  rather  than  what 
he  had  actually  accomplished,  had  already  given  him  a  great  reputa- 
tion throughout  Europe.  Pope  Adrian  IV.  endeavored  to  imitate 
Gregory  VII.'s  language  to  Henry  IV.,  in  treating  with  him,  but 
soon  found  that  he  was  deserted  by  the  German  bishops,  and  thought 
it  prudent  to  apologize.  His  manner,  nevertheless,  and  the  increas- 
ing independence  of  Milan,  called  Frederick  across  the  Alps  with 
an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand  men  in  1158.  Milan  then  sur- 
rounded with  strong  walls,  nine  miles  in  circuit,  was  besieged  and 
at  the  end  of  a  month  forced  to  surrender,  to  rebuild  Lodi,  and  to  pay 
a  fine  of  nine  thousand  pounds  of  silver.  Afterward  the  emperor 
pitched  his  camp  on  the  Roncalian  fields,  with  a  splendor  before  un- 
known. Ambassadors  from  England,  France,  Hungary,  and  Con- 
stantinople were  present,  and  the  imperial  power,  almost  for  the  first 
time,  was  thus  recognized  as  the  first  in  the  civilized  world. 

Just  at  this  time  the  old  Roman  law  was  being  revived ;  eager 
students  were  poring  over  the  Code  of  Justinian,  which  set  forth 
in  the  strongest  terms  the  absolute  power  of  emperors.  Frederick 
made  use  of  this  renaissance  of  law  to  find  out  exactly  what  were 
his  imperial  rights.  Four  doctors  of  the  University  of  Bologna 
were  selected,  who  discovered  so  many  ancient  imperial  rights  which 
had  fallen  into  disuse  that  the  emperor's  treasury  was  enriched  to 
the  amount  of  thirty  thousand  pounds  of  silver  annually  by  their 
enforcement.  When  this  system  came  to  be  practically  applied, 
Milan  and  other  Lombard  cities  which  claimed  the  right  to  elect 
their  own  magistrates,  and  would  have  lost  it  under  the  new  order 
of  things,  determined  to  resist.  A  war  ensued.  Tlie  little  city  of 
Crema  was  the  first  to  be  besieged.  One  detail  alone  will  suffice 
to  show  the  horror  of  the  siege  and  the  spirit  manifested  on  each 
side.  Frederick  I.  caused  one  of  his  besieging  towers,  the  advance 
of  which  had  been  checked  by  the  defenders,  to  be  literally  covered 
with  the  persons  of  hostages  and  captives  from  Crema,  who  were 
thus  exposed  to  the  missiles  of  their  own  friends.     But  this  cruel 


FREDERICK  BARBAROSSA      161 

1160-1166 

maneuver  failed  at  first,  for  patriotism  and  civic  pride  proved 
superior  to  all  tenderer  feelings.  Finally,  after  a  gallant  defense  of 
seven  months  Crema  had  to  yield  to  the  emperor's  overwhelming 
forces   and  was  razed  to  the  ground. 

Next  came  the  turn  of  Milan.  In  the  meantime  the  Pope, 
Adrian  IV.,  had  died,  after  threatening  the  emperor  with  excom- 
munication. The  College  of  Cardinals  was  divided,  each  party 
electing  its  own  Pope.  Of  these,  Victor  IV.  was  recognized  by 
Frederick,  who  claimed  the  right  to  decide  between  them,  while 
most  of  the  Italian  cities,  with  France  and  England,  were  in  favor 
of  Alexander  III.  The  latter  immediately  excommunicated  the 
emperor,  who,  without  paying  any  regard  to  the  act,  prepared  to 
take  his  revenge  on  Milan.  In  March,  1162,  after  a  long  siege,  he 
forced  the  city  to  surrender.  The  magistrates  appeared  before  him 
in  sackcloth,  barefoot,  with  ashes  upon  their  heads  and  ropes  around 
their  necks,  and  begged  him,  with  tears,  to  be  merciful;  but  there 
was  no  mercy  in  his  heart.  He  gave  the  inhabitants  eight  days  to 
leave  the  city,  then  leveled  it  completely  to  the  earth,  and  sowed 
salt  upon  the  ruins  as  a  token  that  it  should  never  be  rebuilt.  The 
rival  cities  of  Pavia,  Lodi,  and  Como  rejoiced  over  this  barbarity, 
and  all  the  towns  of  northern  Italy  hastened  to  submit  to  all  the 
emperor's  claims,  even  that  they  should  be  governed  by  magistrates 
of  his  appointment. 

In  spite  of  this  apparent  submission  he  had  no  sooner  returned 
to  Germany  than  the  cities  of  Lombardy  began  to  form  a  union 
against  him.  They  were  instigated  and  secretly  assisted  by  Venice, 
which  was  already  growing  powerful  through  her  independence. 
The  Pope  whom  Frederick  had  supported  was  also  dead,  and  he 
determined  to  set  up  a  new  one  instead  of  recognizing  Alexander 
III.  He  went  to  Italy  with  a  small  escort,  in  1 163,  but  was  compelled 
to  go  back  without  accomplishing  anything  but  a  second  destruc- 
tion of  Tortona,  which  had  been  rebuilt.  In  Germany  new  dis- 
turbances had  broken  out,  but  his  personal  influence  was  so  great 
that  he  subdued  them  temporarily;  he  also  prevailed  upon  the  Ger- 
man bishops  to  recognize  Paschal  III.,  the  Pope  whom  he  had 
appointed.  He  then  set  about  raising  a  new  army,  and  finally,  in 
1 166,  made  his  fourth  journey  to  Italy. 

This  was  even  more  unfortunate  than  the  third  journey  had 
been.  The  Lombard  cities,  feeling  strong  through  their  union,  had 
not  only  rebuilt  Milan  and  Tortona,  but  had  constructed  a  new 


16«  GERMANY 

11W-1178 

fortified  town,  which  they  named,  aft.er  the  Pope,  Alessandria. 
Frederick  did  not  dare  to  attack  them,  but  marched  on  to  Ancona, 
which  he  besieged  for  seven  months,  finally  accepting  a  ransom 
instead  of  surrender.  He  then  took  the  part  of  Rome  west  of  the 
Tiber  and  installed  his  Pope  in  the  Vatican.  Soon  afterward,  in 
the  summer  of  1167,  a  terrible  pestilence  broke  out,  which  carried 
off  thousands  of  his  best  soldiers  in  a  few  weeks.  His  army  was 
so  reduced  by  death  that  he  stole  through  Lombardy  almost  as  a 
fugitive,  remained  hidden  among  the  Alps  for  months,  and  finally 
crossed  Mont  Cenis  with  only  thirty  followers,  himself  disguised 
as  a  common  soldier. 

Having  reached  Germany  in  safety,  Frederick's  personal  influ- 
ence at  once  gave  him  the  power  and  popularity  which  he  had  for- 
ever lost  in  Italy.  He  found  Henry  the  Lion,  who,  in  addition  to 
Bavaria,  now  governed  nearly  all  the  territory  from  the  Rhine  to 
the  Vistula  north  of  the  Harz  Mountains,  at  enmity  with  Albert 
the  Bear  and  a  number  of  smaller  reigning  princes.  As  emperor 
he  settled  the  questions  in  dispute,  deciding  in  favor  of  Henry  the 
Lion,  although  the  increasing  power  of  the  latter  excited  his  appre- 
hensions. Henry  was  too  cautious  to  make  the  emperor  his  enemy, 
but  in  order  to  avoid  another  march  to  Italy,  he  set  out  upon  a  pil- 
grimage to  Jerusalem.  Frederick,  however,  did  not  succeed  in 
raising  a  fresh  army  to  revenge  his  disgrace  until  11 74,  when  he 
made  his  fifth  journey  to  Italy.  He  first  besieged  the  new  city  of 
Alessandria,  but  in  vain ;  then,  driven  to  desperation  by  his  failure, 
he  called  for  help  upon  Henry  the  Lion,  who  had  now  returned  from 
the  Holy  Land.  The  two  met  at  Chiavenna,  in  the  Italian  Alps; 
but  Henry  steadfastly  refused  to  aid  the  emperor,  although  the 
latter  conquered  his  own  pride  so  far  as  to  kneel  before  him. 

Bitterly  disappointed  and  humiliated,  Frederick  appealed  to 
all  the  German  states  for  aid,  but  he  did  not  receive  fresh  troops 
until  the  spring  of  11 76.  He  then  marched  upon  Milan,  but  was 
met  by  the  united  forces  of  Lombardy  at  Legnano,  near  Como. 
The  latter  fought  with  such  desperation  that  the  imperial  army  was 
completely  routed,  and  its  camp  equipage  and  stores  taken,  with 
many  thousands  of  prisoners,  who  were  treated  with  the  same  bar- 
barity which  the  emperor  himself  had  introduced  anew  into  warfare. 
He  fell  from  his  horse  during  the  fight,  and  had  been  for  some  days 
reported  to  be  dead,  when  he  suddenly  appeared  before  the  Empress 
Beatrix,  at  Pavia,  having  escaped  in  disguise. 


U    D     S? 


:^  s   = 


FREDERICK  BARBAROSSA      168 

1176-1184 

His  military  strength  was  now  so  broken  that  he  was  compelled 
to  seek  a  reconciliation  with  Pope  Alexander  III.  Envoys  went 
back  and  forth  between  the  two,  the  Lombard  cities,  and  the  King 
of  Sicily ;  conferences  were  held  at  various  places,  but  months  passed 
and  no  agreement  was  reached.  Then  the  Pope,  having  received 
Frederick's  submission  to  all  his  demands,  proposed  an  armistice^ 
which  was  solemnly  concluded  in  Venice,  in  August,  1177.  There 
the  emperor  was  released  from  the  Papal  excommunication.  In 
front  of  the  portals  of  St.  Mark's  Cathedral,  where  three  red  slabs 
of  marble  now  mark  the  spot,  Frederick  I.  sank  at  Alexander's  feet, 
but  the  latter  caught  and  lifted  him  in  his  arms,  and  there  was  once 
more  peace  between  the  two  rival  powers.  The  other  Pope,  whose 
claims  Frederick  had  supported  up  to  that  time,  was  left  to  shift  for 
himself.  Before  the  armistice  ceased,  in  1183,  a  treaty  was  con- 
cluded at  Constance,  by  which  the  Italian  cities  recognized  the 
emperor  as  chief  ruler,  but  secured  for  themselves  the  right  of 
independent  government.  Thus  twenty  years  had  been  wasted, 
the  best  blood  of  Germany  squandered,  the  worst  barbarities  of  war 
renewed,  and  Frederick,  after  enduring  shame  and  humiliation,  had 
not  attained  one  of  his  haughty  personal  aims.  Yet  he  was  as 
proud  in  his  bearing  as  ever ;  his  court  lost  none  of  its  splendor,  and 
his  influence  over  the  German  princes  and  people  was  undiminished. 

He  reached  Germany  again  in  11 78,  full  of  wrath  against 
Henry  the  Lion.  It  was  easy  to  find  a  pretext  for  proceeding 
against  him,  for  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  the  Bishop  of  Halber- 
stadt,  and  many  nobles  had  already  made  complaints.  Henry,  in 
fact,  was  much  like  Frederick  in  his  nature,  but  his  despotic  stern- 
ness and  pride  were  more  directly  exercised  upon  the  people.  He 
raised  an  army  and  boldly  resisted  the  imperial  power.  Again 
Westphalia,  Thuringia,  and  Saxony  were  wasted  by  civil  war,  and 
the  struggle  was  prolonged  until  1181,  when  Henry  was  forced  to 
surrender  unconditionally.  He  was  banished  to  England  for  three 
years,  his  duchy  of  Bavaria  was  given  to  Otto  of  Wittelsbach,  and 
the  greater  part  of  Saxony,  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Baltic,  was  cut 
up  and  divided  among  the  reigning  bishops  and  smaller  princes. 
Only  the  province  of  Brunswick  was  left  to  Henry  the  Lion  of  all 
his  possessions.  This  was  Frederick's  policy  for  diminishing  the 
power  of  the  separate  states :  the  more  they  were  increased  in  num- 
ber the  greater  would  be  the  dependence  of  each  on  the  emperor. 

The  ruin  of  Henry  the  Lion  fully  restored  Frederick's  author- 


154 


GERMANY 


1184-1186 


ity  over  all  Germany.  In  May,  1184,  he  gave  a  grand  tournament 
and  festival  at  Mayence,  which  surpassed  in  pomp  everything  that 
had  before  been  seen  by  the  people.  The  flower  of  knighthood, 
foreign  as  well  as  German,  was  present :  princes,  bishops,  and  lords, 
scholars  and  minstrels,  seventy  thousand  knights,  and  probably  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  the  soldiers  and  common  people  were  gathered 
together.  The  emperor,  still  handsome  and  towering  in  manly 
strength,  in  spite  of  his  sixty-three  years,  rode  in  the  lists  with  his 


t?n     ^      CENTRAL  EUROPE 
iiao 


five  sons,  the  eldest  of  whom,  Henry,  had  already  been  crowned 
King  of  Germany,  as  his  successor.  For  many  years  afterward 
the  wandering  minstrels  sang  the  glories  of  this  festival,  which  they 
compared  to  those  given  by  the  half-fabulous  King  Arthur. 

Immediately  afterward,  Frederick  made  his  sixth  journey  to 
Italy,  without  an  army,  but  accompanied  by  a  magnificent  retinue. 
The  temporary  union  of  the  cities  against  him  was  at  an  end,  and 
their  former  jealousies  of  each  other  had  broken  out  more  fiercely 
than  ever ;  so  that,  instead  of  meeting  him  in  a  hostile  spirit,  each 
endeavored  to  gain  his  favor,  to  the  damage  of  the  others.  It  was 
easy  for  him  to  turn  this  state  of  affairs  to  his  own  personal  advan- 


FREDERICK  BARBAROSSA      156 

1186-1190 

tage.  The  Pope,  now  Urban  III.,  endeavored  to  make  him  give  up 
Tuscany  to  the  church,  and  opposed  his  design  of  marrying  his  son 
Henry  to  Constance,  daughter  of  the  King  of  Sicily,  since  all  south- 
ern Italy  would  thus  fall  to  the  Hohenstaufen  family.  Another 
excommunication  was  threatened  and  would  probably  have  been 
hurled  upon  the  emperor's  head  if  the  Pope  had  not  died  before 
pronouncing  it.  The  marriage  of  Henry  and  Constance  took  place 
in  1 1 86. 

The  next  year  all  Europe  was  shaken  by  the  news  that  Jerusa- 
lem had  been  taken  by  Sultan  Saladin.  A  call  for  a  new  crusade  was 
made  from  Rome,  and  the  Christian  kings  and  peoples  of  Europe 
responded  to  it.  Richard  of  the  Lion-Heart  of  England;  Philip 
Augustus  of  France;  and  first  of  all  Frederick  Barbarossa,  Roman 
Emperor,  put  the  cross  on  their  mantles  and  prepared  to  march  to 
the  Holy  Land.  Frederick  left  his  son  Henry  VI.  behind  him, 
as  king,  but  he  was  still  suspicious  of  Henry  the  Lion,  and  demanded 
that  he  should  either  join  the  crusade  or  retire  again  to  England, 
for  three  years  longer.     Henry  the  Lion  chose  the  latter  alternative. 

The  German  crusaders,  numbering  about  thirty  thousand,  met 
at  Ratisbon  in  May,  1189,  and  marched  overland  to  Constanti- 
nople. Then  they  took  the  same  route  through  Asia  Minor  which 
had  been  followed  by  the  second  crusade,  defeating  the  sultan  and 
taking  the  city  of  Iconium  by  the  way,  and  after  threading  the 
wild  passes  of  the  Taurus,  reached  the  borders  of  Syria.  While 
on  the  march  the  emperor  received  the  false  message  that  his  son 
Henry  was  dead.  The  tears  ran  down  his  beard,  no  longer  red,  but 
silver-white ;  then,  turning  to  the  army,  he  cried :  "  My  son  is 
dead,  but  Christ  lives!  Forward!"  On  June  10,  1190,  either 
while  attempting  to  ford  or  to  bathe  in  the  little  River  Caly- 
cadnus,  not  far  from  Tarsus,  he  was  drowned.  The  stream,  fed 
by  the  melted  snows  of  the  Taurus,  was  ice-cold,  and  one  ac- 
count states  that  he  was  not  drowned,  but  died  in  consequence 
of  the  sudden  chill.  A  few  of  his  followers  carried  his  body  to 
Palestine,  where  it  was  placed  in  the  Christian  church  at  Tyre. 
Notwithstanding  the  heroism  of  the  English  Richard  at  Ascalon, 
the  crusade  failed,  since  the  German  army  was  broken  up  after 
Frederick's  death,  most  of  the  knights  returning  directly  home. 

The  most  that  can  be  said  for  Frederick  Barbarossa  as  a 
ruler  is  that  no  other  emperor  before  or  after  his  time  maintained 
so  complete  an  authority  over  the  German  princes.     The  influence 


156  GERMANY 

1190-1192 

of  his  personal  presence  seems  to  have  been  very  great.  The  im- 
perial power  became  splendid  and  effective  in  his  hands,  and  al- 
though he  did  nothing  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  people 
beyond  establishing  order  and  security,  they  gradually  came  to 
consider  him  as  the  representative  of  a  grand  national  Idea.  When 
he  went  away  to  the  mysterious  East,  and  never  returned,  the 
most  of  them  refused  to  believe  that  he  was  dead.  By  degrees  the 
legend  took  root  among  them  that  he  slumbered  in  a  vault  under- 
neath the  Kyffliauser — one  of  his  castles  on  the  summit  of  a  moun- 
tain near  the  Harz — and  would  come  forth  at  the  appointed  time 
to  make  Germany  united  and  free.  Nothing  in  his  character,  or 
in  the  proud  and  selfish  aims  of  his  life,  justifies  this  sentiment  which 
the  people  attached  to  his  name;  but  the  legend  became  a  symbol 
of  their  hopes  and  prayers  through  centuries  of  oppression  and 
desolating  war,  and  the  name  of  "  Barbarossa  "  is  sacred  to  every 
patriotic  heart  in  Germany  even  at  this  day. 

Henry  the  Lion  hastened  back  to  Germany  at  once,  and  at- 
tempted to  regain  possession  of  Saxony.  Barbarossa's  son,  Henry 
VI.,  took  the  field  against  him,  and  the  interminable  strife  between 
Welf  and  Waiblinger  was  renewed  for  a  time.  The  king  was 
twenty-five  years  old,  tall  and  stately  like  his  father,  but  even  more 
stern  and  despotic  than  he.  He  was  impatient  to  proceed  to  Italy, 
both  to  be  crowned  emperor  and  to  secure  the  Norman  kingdom 
of  Sicily  as  his  wife's  inheritance;  therefore,  making  a  temporary 
truce  with  Henry  the  Lion,  he  hastened  to  Rome  and  was  there 
crowned  in  1191.  His  attempt  to  conquer  Naples,  which  was  held 
by  the  Norman  prince,  Tancred,  completely  failed,  and  a  deadly 
pestilence  in  his  army  compelled  him  to  return  to  Germany  before 
the  close  of  the  same  year. 

The  fight  with  Henry  the  Lion  was  immediately  renewed, 
and  during  the  whole  of  1192  northern  Germany  was  ravaged 
worse  than  before.  In  December  of  that  year  King  Richard  the 
Lion-hearted,  returning  home  overland  from  Palestine,  was  taken 
prisoner  by  Duke  Leopold  of  Austria,  whom  he  had  offended  dur- 
ing the  crusade,  and  was  delivered  to  the  emperor.  As  King 
Richard  was  the  brother-in-law  of  Henry  the  Lion,  he  was  held 
partly  as  a  hostage  and  partly  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  an  enor- 
mous ransom  for  his  liberation.  His  mother  came  from  England, 
and  the  sum  of  150,000  silver  marks  which  the  emperor  demanded 
was  paid  by  her  exertions.     Still  Richard  was  kept  prisoner  at 


FREDERICK  BARBAROSSA      167 

1192-1197 

Trifels,  a  lonely  castle  among  the  Vosges  Mountains.  The  legend 
relates  that  his  minstrel,  Blondel,  discovered  his  place  of  imprison- 
ment by  singing  the  king's  favorite  song  under  the  windows  of  all 
the  castles  near  the  Rhine  until  the  song  was  answered  by  the  well- 
known  voice  from  within.  The  German  princes,  finally,  felt  that 
they  were  disgraced  by  the  emperor's  conduct,  and  they  compelled 
him  to  liberate  Richard,  in  February,  1194. 

The  same  year  a  reconciliation  was  effected  with  Henry  the 
Lion.  The  latter  devoted  himself  to  the  improvement  of  the  people 
of  his  little  state  of  Brunswick.  He  instituted  reforms  in  their 
laws,  encouraged  their  education,  collected  books  and  works  of  art, 
and  made  himself  so  honored  and  beloved  before  his  death,  in 
August,  1 195,  that  he  was  mourned  as  a  benefactor  by  those  who 
had  once  hated  him  as  a  tyrant.  He  was  sixty-six  years  old,  three 
years  younger  than  his  rival,  Barbarossa,  whom  he  fully  equaled 
in  energy  and  ability.  Although  defeated  in  his  struggle,  he  laid 
the  basis  of  a  better  civil  order,  a  higher  and  firmer  civilization, 
throughout  the  north  of  Germany. 

Henry  VI.,  enriched  by  King  Richard's  ransom,  went  to  Italy, 
puchased  the  assistance  of  Genoa  and  Pisa,  and  easily  conquered 
the  Sicilian  kingdom.  He  treated  the  family  of  Tancred  (who  was 
now  dead)  with  shocking  barbarity,  tortured  and  executed  his 
enemies  with  a  cruelty  worthy  of  Nero,  and  made  himself  heartily 
feared  and  hated.  Then  he  hastened  back  to  Germany,  to  have  the 
imperial  dignity  made  hereditary  in  his  family.  Even  here  he 
was  on  the  point  of  succeeding,  in  spite  of  the  strong  opposition 
of  the  Saxon  princes,  when  a  Norman  insurrection  recalled  him  to 
Sicily.  He  demanded  the  provinces  of  Macedonia  and  Epirus  from 
the  Greek  emperor,  encouraged  the  project  of  a  new  crusade,  with 
the  design  of  conquering  Constantinople,  and  evidently  dreamed  of 
making  himself  ruler  of  the  whole  Christian  world,  when  death  cut 
him  off,  in  1197,  in  his  thirty-second  year.  His  widow,  Constance 
of  Sicily,  was  left  with  a  son,  Frederick,  then  only  three  years  old. 


Chapter    XVIII 

THE  REIGN  OF  FREDERICK  II.  AND  THE  END  OF  THE 
HOHENSTAUFEN  LINE.     1 197-1268 

A  STORY  was  long  current  among  the  German  people  that 
shortly  before  Henry  VI. 's  death  the  spirit  of  Theodoric 
the  Great,  in  giant  form,  on  a  black  war-steed,  rode  along 
the  Rhine,  presaging  trouble  to  the  empire.  This  legend  no  doubt 
originated  after  the  trouble  came,  and  was  simply  a  poetical  image 
of  what  had  already  happened.  The  German  princes  were  de- 
termined to  have  no  child  again  as  their  hereditary  emperor;  but 
only  one  son  of  Frederick  Barbarossa  still  lived — Philip  of  Suabia. 
The  bitter  hostility  between  Welf  (Guelph)  and  Waiblinger 
(Ghibelline)  still  existed,  and  although  Philip  was  chosen  by  a  diet 
held  in  Thuringia,  the  opposite  party,  secretly  assisted  by  the  Pope 
and  by  Richard  the  Lion-hearted  of  England  (who  had  certainly 
no  reason  to  be  friendly  to  the  Hohenstaufens)  met  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  and  elected  Otto,  son  of  Henry  the  Lion. 

Just  at  this  crisis  Innocent  III.  became  Pope.  He  was  as 
haughty,  inflexible,  and  ambitious  as  Gregory  VII.,  whom  he  took 
for  his  model.  Under  him  the  Inquisition  was  established.  So 
completely  had  the  relation  of  the  two  powers  been  changed  by 
the  humiliation  of  Henry  IV.  and  Barbarossa  that  the  Pope  now 
claimed  the  right  to  decide  between  the  rival  monarchs.  Of  course 
he  gave  his  voice  for  Otto,  and  excommunicated  Philip.  The  effect 
of  this  policy,  however,  was  to  awaken  the  jealousy  of  the  German 
bishops  as  well  as  the  princes,— even  the  former  found  the  Papal 
interference  a  little  too  arbitrary, — and  Philip,  instead  of  being 
injured,  actually  derived  advantage  from  it.  In  the  war  which 
followed  Otto  lost  so  much  ground  that  in  1207  he  was  obliged  to 
flee  to  England,  where  he  was  assisted  by  King  John ;  but  he  would 
probably  have  again  failed,  when  an  unexpected  crime  made  him 
successful.  Philip  was  murdered  in  1208  by  Otto  of  Wittelsbach, 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  on  account  of  some  personal  grievance. 

As  he  left  no  children,  and  Frederick,  the  son  of  Henry  VI., 


FREDERICKII  169 

1208-1212 

was  still  a  boy  of  fourteen,  Otto  found  no  difficulty  in  persuading 
the  German  princes  to  accept  him  as  king.  His  first  act  was  to 
proceed  against  Philip's  murderer  and  his  accomplice,  the  Bishop 
of  Bamberg.  Both  fled,  but  Otto  of  Wittelsbach  was  overtaken 
near  Ratisbon  and  instantly  slain.  In  1209  King  Otto  collected  a 
magnificent  retinue  at  Augsburg  and  set  out  for  Italy  in  order 
to  be  crowned  emperor  at  Rome.  As  the  enemy  of  the  Hohenstauf- 
ens  he  felt  sure  of  a  welcome;  but  Innocent  III.,  whom  he  met 
at  Viterbo,  required  a  great  many  special  concessions  to  the  Papal 
power  before  he  would  consent  to  bestow  the  crown.  Even  after 
the  ceremony  was  over,  he  inhospitably  hinted  to  the  new  emperor. 
Otto  IV.,  that  he  should  leave  Rome  as  soon  as  possible.  The  gates 
of  the  city  were  shut  upon  the  latter,  and  his  army  was  left  without 
supplies. 

The  jurists  of  Bologna  soon  convinced  Otto  that  some  of  his 
concessions  to  the  Pope  were  illegal  and  need  not  be  observed. 
He  therefore  took  possession  of  Tuscany,  which  he  had  agreed  to 
surrender  to  the  Pope,  and  afterward  marched  against  southern 
Italy,  where  the  young  Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen  was  already 
acknowledged  as  King  of  Sicily.  This  grandson  of  Frederick 
Barbarossa  had  been  carefully  educated  under  the  guardianship  of 
Innocent  III.,  after  the  death  of  Constance  in  1198,  and  threatened 
to  become  a  dangerous  rival  for  the  imperial  crown.  Otto's  invasion 
so  exasperated  the  Pope  that  he  excommunicated  him,  and  called 
upon  the  German  princes  to  recognize  Frederick  in  his  stead.  As 
Otto  had  never  been  personally  popular  in  Germany,  the  Waiblinger, 
or  Hohenstaufen,  party,  responded  to  Innocent's  proclamation. 
Suabia  and  Bavaria  and  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence  pronounced  for 
Frederick,  while  Saxony,  Lorraine,  and  the  northern  bishops  re- 
mained true  to  Otto.  The  latter  hastened  back  to  Germany  in 
12 12,  regained  some  of  his  lost  ground,  and  attempted  to  strengthen 
his  cause  by  marrying  Beatrix,  the  daughter  of  Philip.  But  she 
died  four  days  after  the  marriage,  and  in  the  meantime  Frederick, 
supplied  with  money  by  the  Pope,  had  crossed  the  Alps. 

The  young  king,  who  had  been  educated  wholly  in  Sicily,  and 
who  all  his  life  was  an  Italian  rather  than  a  German,  was  now 
eighteen  years  old.  He  resembled  his  grandfather,  Frederick  Bar- 
barossa, in  person,  was  perhaps  his  equal  in  strength  and  deci- 
sion of  character,  but  far  surpassed  him  or  any  of  his  imperial 
predecessors  in  knowledge  and  refinement.    He  spoke  six  languages 


160  GERMANY 

1212-1226 

with  fluency;  he  was  a  poet  and  minstrel;  he  loved  the  arts  of 
peace  no  less  than  those  of  war;  yet  he  was  a  statesman  and  a 
leader  of  men.  On  his  way  to  Germany  he  found  the  Lombard 
cities,  except  Pavia,  so  hostile  to  him  that  he  was  obliged  to  cross 
the  Alps  by  secret  and  dangerous  paths,  and  when  he  finally  reached 
the  city  of  Constance,  with  only  sixty  followers.  Otto  IV.  was  close 
at  hand  with  a  large  army.  But  Constance  opened  its  gates  to  the 
young  Hohenstaufen ;  Suabia,  the  home  of  his  fathers,  rose  in  his 
support ;  and  the  emperor,  without  even  venturing  a  battle,  retreated 
to  Saxony. 

For  nearly  three  years  the  two  rivals  watched  each  other  with- 
out engaging  in  open  hostilities.  The  stately  bearing  of  Frederick, 
which  he  inherited  from  Barbarossa,  the  charm  and  refinement  of 
his  manners,  and  the  generosity  he  exhibited  toward  all  who  were 
friendly  to  his  claims  gradually  increased  the  number  of  his  sup- 
porters. In  121 5  Otto  joined  King  John  of  England  and  the  Count 
of  Flanders  in  a  war  against  Philip  Augustus  of  France,  and  was 
so  signally  defeated  that  his  influence  in  Germany  speedily  came 
to  an  end.  Lorraine  and  Holland  declared  for  Frederick,  who  was 
crowned  in  Aix-la-Chapelle  with  great  pomp  the  same  year.  Otto 
died  near  Brunswick  three  years  afterward,  poor  and  unhonored. 

Pope  Innocent  III.  died  in  1216,  and  Frederick  appears  to  have 
considered  that  the  assistance  which  he  had  received  from  him  was 
personal  and  not  Papal;  for  he  not  only  laid  claim  to  the  Tuscan 
possessions,  but  neglected  his  promise  to  engage  in  a  new  crusade 
for  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem,  and  even  attempted  to  control  the 
choice  of  bishops.  At  the  same  time  he  took  measures  to  secure 
the  coronation  of  his  infant  son,  Henry,  as  his  successor.  His 
journey  to  Rome  was  made  in  the  year  1220.  The  new  Pope, 
Honorius  III.,  a  man  of  a  mild  and  yielding  nature,  nevertheless 
only  crowned  him  on  condition  that  he  would  observe  the  violated 
claims  of  the  church,  and  especially  that  he  would  strictly  suppress 
all  heresy  in  the  empire.  When  he  had  been  crowned  emperor 
as  Frederick  II.,  he  fixed  himself  in  southern  Italy  and  Sicily  for 
some  years,  quite  neglecting  his  German  rule,  but  wisely  infiproving 
the  condition  of  his  favorite  kingdom.  He  was  signally  successful 
in  controlling  the  Saracens,  whose  language  he  spoke,  whom  he 
converted  into  subjects,  and  who  afterward  became  his  best  soldiers. 

The  Pope,  however,  became  very  impatient  at  the  non-fulfill- 
ment of  Frederick's  promises,  and  the  latter  was  compelled,  in 


FREDERICKII  161 

1226-1228 

1226,  to  summon  a  diet  of  all  the  German  and  Italian  princes  to 
meet  at  Verona,  in  order  to  make  preparations  for  a  new  crusade. 
But  the  cities  of  Lombardy,  fearing  that  the  army  to  be  raised 
would  be  used  against  them,  adopted  all  possible  measures  against 
the  meeting  of  the  diet,  took  possession  of  the  passes  of  the  Adige, 
and  prevented  the  emperor's  son,  the  young  King  Henry  of  Ger- 
many, and  his  followers,  from  entering  Italy.  Angry  and  humili- 
ated, Frederick  was  compelled  to  return  to  Sicily.    The  next  year, 

1227,  Honorius  died,  and  the  cardinals  elected  as  his  successor 
Gregory  IX.,  a  man  more  than  eighty  years  old,  but  of  a  remark- 
able nature.  He  immediately  threatened  the  emperor  with  ex- 
communication in  case  the  crusade  for  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem 
was  not  at  once  undertaken,  and  the  latter  was  compelled  to  obey. 
He  hastily  collected  an  army  and  fleet  and  departed  from  Naples, 
but  returned  at  the  end  of  three  days,  alleging  a  serious  illness  as 
the  cause  of  his  sudden  change  of  plan. 

He  was  instantly  excommunicated  by  Gregory  IX.,  and  he 
replied  by  a  proclamation  addressed  to  all  kings  and  princes — a 
document  breathing  defiance  and  hate  against  the  Pope  and  his 
claims.  Nevertheless,  in  order  to  keep  his  word  in  regard  to  the 
crusade,  he  went  to  the  East  with  a  large  force  in  1228,  and  ob- 
tained, by  a  treaty  with  the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  the  possession  of 
Jerusalem,  Bethlehem,  Nazareth,  and  Mount  Carmel  for  ten  years. 
His  second  wife,  the  Empress  lolanthe,  was  the  daughter  of  Guy 
of  Lusignan,  the  last  King  of  Jerusalem;  and  therefore  when 
Frederick  visited  the  Holy  City  he  claimed  the  right,  as  Guy's  heir, 
of  setting  the  crown  of  Jerusalem  upon  his  own  head.  The  entire 
crusade,  which  was  not  marked  by  any  deeds  of  arms,  occupied  only 
eight  months. 

Although  he  had  fulfilled  his  agreement  with  Rome,  the  Pope 
declared  that  a  crusade  undertaken  by  an  excommunicated  emperor 
was  a  sin,  and  did  all  he  could  to  prevent  Frederick's  success  in 
Palestine.  But  when  the  latter  returned  to  Italy  he  found  that 
the  Roman  people,  a  majority  of  whom  were  on  his  side,  had  driven 
Gregory  IX.  from  the  city.  It  was  therefore  comparatively  easy 
for  him  to  come  to  an  agreement,  whereby  the  Pope  released  him 
from  the  ban  in  return  for  being  reinstated  in  Rome.  This  was 
only  a  truce,  however,  not  a  lasting  peace ;  between  two  such  im- 
perious natures  peace  was  impossible.  The  agreement,  nevertheless, 
gave  Frederick  some  years  of  quiet,  which  he  employed  in  regu- 


162  GERMANY 

1228-1230 

lating  the  affairs  of  his  southern  Italian  kingdom.  He  abolished, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  feudal  system  introduced  by  the  Normans, 
and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  representative  form  of  government. 
His  court  at  Palermo  became  the  resort  of  learned  men  and  poets, 
where  Arabic,  Provencal,  Italian,  and  German  poetry  was  recited, 
where  songs  were  sung,  where  the  fine  arts  were  encouraged,  and 
the  rude  and  warlike  pastimes  of  former  rulers  gave  way  to  the 
spirit  of  a  purer  civilization.  Although,  as  we  have  said,  his  nature 
was  almost  wholly  Italian,  no  emperor  after  Charlemagne  so  fos- 
tered the  growth  of  a  German  literature  as  Frederick  II. 

But  this  constitutes  his  only  real  service  to  Germany.  While 
he  was  enjoying  the  peaceful  and  prosperous  development  of  Naples 
and  Sicily,  his  great  empire  in  the  north  was  practically  taking  care 
of  itself,  for  the  boy  king,  Henry,  governed  chiefly  by  allowing  the 
reigning  bishops,  dukes,  and  princes  to  do  very  much  as  they  pleased. 
There  was  a  season  of  peace  with  France,  Hungary,  and  Poland; 
and  Denmark,  which  was  then  the  only  dangerous  neighbor,  was 
repelled  without  the  imperial  assistance.  Frederick  II.,  in  his  first 
rivalry  with  Otto,  had  shamefully  purchased  Denmark's  favor  by 
giving  up  all  the  territory  between  the  Elbe  and  the  Oder.  But 
when  Henry,  Count  of  Schwerin,  returned  from  a  pilgrimage  to 
the  Holy  Land,  and  found  the  Danish  king,  Waldemar,  in  posses- 
sion of  his  territory,  he  organized  a  revolt  in  order  to  recover  his 
rights,  and  succeeded  in  taking  Waldemar  and  his  son  prisoners. 
Frederick  II.  now  supported  him,  and  the  Pope,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  supported  Denmark.  A  great  battle  was  fought  in  Holstein, 
and  the  Danes  were  so  signally  defeated  that  they  were  forced 
to  give  up  all  the  German  territory  except  the  island  of  Riigen  and 
a  little  strip  of  the  Pomeranian  coast,  besides  paying  forty-five 
thousand  silver  marks  for  the  ransom  of  Waldemar  and  his  son. 

About  this  time,  in  consequence  of  the  demand  of  Pope  Inno- 
cent III.  that  all  heresy  should  be  treated  as  a  crime  and  suppressed 
by  force,  a  new  element  of  conflict  with  Rome  was  introduced  into 
Germany.  Among  other  acts  of  violence,  the  Stedinger,  a  tribe 
of  free  farmers  of  Saxon  blood,  who  inhabited  the  low  country  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Weser,  were  literally  exterminated  by  order  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Bremen,  to  whom  they  had  refused  the  payment 
of  tithes.  In  1230  Gregory  IX.  wrote  to  King  Henry,  urging  him 
to  crush  out  heresy  in  Germany :  "  Where  is  the  zeal  of  Moses, 
who  destroyed  23,000  idolaters  in  one  day?  Where  is  the  zeal  of 


FREDERICKII  163 

1230-1235 

Elijah,  who  slew  450  prophets  with  the  sword,  by  the  brook  Kishon? 
Against  this  evil  the  strongest  means  must  be  used :  there  is  need 
of  steel  and  fire."  Conrad  of  Marburg  was  appointed  inquisitor 
for  Germany  by  Gregory.  The  German  princes  resented  this  at- 
tempt to  introduce  the  Inquisition  into  Germany.  At  a  diet  at 
Frankfort,  in  1234,  they  decreed  that  heresy  cases  should  be  tried 
only  in  their  own  secular  courts,  and  according  to  regular  judicial 
procedure.  The  death  of  Conrad  of  Marburg  by  assassination  in 
1233  may  be  said  to  have  marked  the  end  of  the  Inquisition  in 
Germany. 

In  1232  Frederick  II.,  in  order  that  he  might  seem  to  fulfill 
his  neglected  duties  as  German  emperor,  summoned  a  general  diet 
to  m^eet  at  Ravenna,  but  it  was  prevented  by  the  Lombard  cities,  as 
the  Diet  of  Verona  had  been  prevented  six  years  before.  Befriended 
by  Venice,  however,  Frederick  marched  to  Aquileia,  and  there  met 
his  son.  King  Henry,  after  a  separation  of  twelve  years.  Their 
respective  ages  were  thirty-seven  and  twenty-one.  There  was  little 
personal  sympathy  or  affection  between  them,  and  they  only  came 
together  to  quarrel.  Frederick  refused  to  sanction  most  of  Henry's 
measures ;  he  demanded,  among  other  things,  that  the  latter  should 
rebuild  the  strongholds  of  the  robber  knights  of  Hohenlohe,  which 
had  been  razed  to  the  ground.  This  seemed  to  Henry  an  outrage 
as  well  as  a  humiliation,  and  he  returned  home  with  rebellion  in 
his  heart.  After  proclaiming  himself  independent  king,  he  entered 
into  an  alliance  with  the  cities  of  Lombardy  and  even  sought  the 
aid  of  the  Pope. 

Early  in  1235,  after  an  absence  of  fifteen  years,  Frederick  II. 
returned  to  Germany.  The  revolt,  which  had  seemed  so  threat- 
ening, fell  to  pieces  at  his  approach.  He  was  again  master  of 
the  empire  without  striking  a  blow.  Henry  had  no  course  but  to 
surrender  without  conditions.  He  was  deposed,  imprisoned,  and 
finally  sent  with  his  family  to  southern  Italy,  where  he  died  seven 
years  afterward.  The  same  summer  the  emperor,  whose  wife, 
lolanthe,  had  died  some  years  before,  was  married^t  Worms  to 
Isabella,  sister  of  King  Henry  III.  of  England.  The  ceremony 
was  attended  with  festivals  of  oriental  splendor;  the  attendants 
of  the  new  empress  were  Saracens,  and  she  was  obliged  to  live 
after  the  manner  of  Eastern  women.  Immense  numbers  of  the 
nobles  and  people  flocked  to  Worms,  and  soon  afterward  to  May- 
ence,  where  a  diet  was  held.     Here,  for  the  first  time,  the  decrees 


164  GERMANY 

1235-1237 

of  the  diet  were  publicly  read  in  the  German  language.  Frederick 
also,  as  the  head  of  the  Waiblinger  party,  effected  a  reconciliation 
with  Otto  of  Brunswick,  the  head  of  the  Welfs,  whereby  the  rivalry 
of  a  hundred  years  came  to  an  end  in  Germany;  but  in  Italy  the 
struggle  between  the  Ghibellines  and  the  Guelphs  was  continued 
long  after  the  Hohenstaufen  line  became  extinct. 

In  the  autumn  of  1236  Frederick  conquered  and  deposed 
Frederick  the  Quarrelsome,  Duke  of  Austria,  and  made  Vienna  a 
free  imperial  city.  A  diet  was  held  there,  at  which  his  second  son, 
Conrad,  then  nine  years  old,  was  accepted  as  King  of  Germany. 
This  choice  was  confirmed  by  another  diet,  held  the  following  year 
at  Speyer.  The  emperor  now  left  Germany,  never  to  return.  This 
brief  visit,  of  a  little  more  than  a  year,  was  the  only  interruption 
in  his  thirty  years  of  absence;  but  it  revived  his  great  personal 
influence  over  princes  and  people,  it  was  marked  by  the  full  recog- 
nition of  his  authority,  and  it  contributed,  in  combination  with  his 
struggle  against  the  power  of  Rome  which  followed,  to  impress 
upon  his  reign  a  more  splendid  and  successful  character  than  his 
acts  deserve.  Although  the  remainder  of  his  history  belongs  to 
Italy,  it  was  not  without  importance  for  the  later  fortunes  of  Ger- 
many, and  must  therefore  be  briefly  stated. 

On  returning  to  Italy,  Frederick  found  himself  involved  in 
new  difficulties  with  the  independent  cities.  He  was  supported  by 
his  son-in-law,  Ezzelin,  and  a  large  army  from  Naples  and  Sicily, 
composed  chiefly  of  Saracens.  With  this  force  he  won  such  a 
victory  at  Cortenuovo  that  even  Milan  offered  to  yield,  under  hard 
conditions.  Then  Frederick  II.  made  the  same  mistake  as  his  grand- 
father, Barbarossa,  in  similar  circumstances.  He  demanded  a  com- 
plete and  unconditional  surrender,  which  so  aroused  the  fear  and 
excited  the  hate  of  the  Lombards  that  they  united  in  a  new  and 
desperate  resistance,  which  he  was  unable  to  crush.  Gregory  IX., 
who  claimed  for  the  church  the  Island  of  Sardinia,  which  Frederick 
had  given  as  a  kingdom  to  his  son  Enzio,  hurled  a  new  excommuni- 
cation against  the  emperor,  and  the  fiercest  of  all  the  quarrels  be- 
tween the  two  powers  now  began  to  rage. 

The  Pope,  in  a  proclamation,  asserted  of  Frederick:  "This 
pestilential  king  declares  that  the  world  has  been  deceived  by  three 
impostors,  Moses,  Mohammed,  and  Christ,  the  two  former  of  whom 
died  honorably,  but  the  last  shamefully,  upon  the  cross.  Further- 
more, he  has  dared  to  assert,  but  falsely,  that  all  those  are  fools 


FREDERICK    II  165 

1237-1241 

who  believe  that  Almighty  God,  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth, 
was  born  of  a  virgin.  This  heresy  he  bases  on  the  assertion  that 
no  one  can  be  born  without  the  previous  union  of  man  and  woman, 
and  that  there  is  no  need  to  believe  anything  at  all  that  cannot  be 
proved  by  reason  and  by  natural  means."  He  further  styled  the 
emperor  "that  beast  of  Revelations  which  came  out  of  the  sea; 
her  feet  are  those  of  a  bear,  her  teeth  those  of  a  lion,  and  in  her 
members  she  resembles  a  leopard;  she  only  opens  her  mouth  to 
blaspheme  the  name  of  the  Lord,  to  attack  the  Divine  Tabernacle 
and  the  Saints  who  inhabit  the  heavens.  Formerly  she  laid  secret 
ambushes  for  the  church,  but  now  she  destroys  everything  with  her 
claws  and  iron  teeth,  and,  assisted  by  the  heretics,  arises  against 
Christ,  in  order  to  drive  His  name  out  of  the  world."  Frederick, 
in  an  answer  which  was  sent  to  all  the  kings  and  princes  of  Chris- 
tendom, wrote:  "The  Apostolic  and  Athanasian  creeds  are  mine; 
Moses  I  consider  a  friend  of  God,  and  Mohammed  an  arch-im- 
postor." He  enumerated  the  wrongs  he  had  received  at  the  hands 
of  the  Pope,  and  pointed  out  to  all  other  rulers  the  dangers  which 
will  threaten  them  if  he  himself,  the  emperor,  should  fall  a  vic- 
tim to  the  Papal  tyranny :  "  Run  for  water  for  the  protection  of 
your  own  house  when  that  of  your  neighbor  burns;  for  certainly 
the  Pope  will  think  it  easy  to  cast  down  other  princes  if  he  once 
crushes  the  head  of  the  empire."  And  Frederick  11.  closed  his 
letter,  no  less  venomous  than  that  of  his  Papal  antagonist,  by  de- 
scribing the  Pope  as  "  that  horse  in  Revelations,  from  which,  as 
it  is  written,  issued  another  horse,  and  he  that  sat  upon  him  took 
away  the  peace  of  the  world,  so  that  the  living  destroyed  each 
other,"  and  named  him  further  "  the  second  Balaam,  the  great 
dragon,  yea,  even  the  Antichrist." 

Gregory  IX.  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  set  up  a  rival  em- 
peror, but  the  princes  and  even  the  archbishops  were  opposed  to 
him,  Frederick,  who  was  not  idle  meanwhile,  entered  the  States  of 
the  Church,  took  several  cities,  and  advanced  toward  Rome.  Then 
the  Pope  offered  to  call  together  a  council  in  Rome  to  settle  all 
matters  in  dispute.  But  those  who  were  summoned  to  attend  were 
Frederick's  enemies,  whereupon  he  issued  a  proclamation  declaring 
the  council  void,  and  warning  the  bishops  and  priests  against  com- 
ing to  it.  Most  of  them,  however,  met  at  Nice  in  1241,  and  em- 
barked for  Rome  on  a  Genoese  fleet  of  sixty  vessels ;  but  Frederick's 
son,   Enzio,    intercepted   them   with   a   Pisan   and   Sicilian   fleet, 


166  GERMANY 

1241-1249 

captured  lOO  cardinals,  bishops,  and  abbots,  lOO  civil  deputies,  and 
4000  men,  and  carried  them  to  Naples.  The  council,  therefore, 
could  not  be  held,  and  Pope  Gregory  died  soon  afterward,  almost 
a  himdred  years  old. 

After  quarreling  for  nearly  two  years  the  cardinals  finally 
elected  a  new  Pope,  Innocent  IV.  He  had  been  a  friend  of  the 
emperor,  but  the  latter  exclaimed  on  hearing  of  his  election :  "  I 
fear  that  I  have  lost  a  friend  among  the  cardinals,  and  found  an 
enemy  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter;  no  Pope  can  be  a  Ghibelline!" 
His  words  were  true.  After  fruitless  negotiations  Innocent  IV. 
went  to  Lyons  and  there  called  together  a  council  of  the  church 
which  declared  that  Frederick  had  forfeited  his  crowns  and  dig- 
nities, that  he  was  cast  out  by  God,  and  should  be  thenceforth  ac- 
cursed. Frederick  answered  this  declaration  with  a  bold  statement 
of  the  corruptions  of  the  clergy,  and  the  dangers  arising  from  the 
temporal  power  of  the  Popes,  which,  he  asserted,  should  be  sup- 
pressed for  the  sake  of  Christianity,  the  early  purity  of  which  had 
been  lost.  King  Louis  IX.  of  France  endeavored  to  bring  about  a 
suspension  of  the  struggle,  which  was  now  beginning  to  disturb 
all  Europe;  but  the  Pope  angfrily  refused. 

In  1246  Innocent  persuaded  Henry  Raspe,  Landgrave  of 
Thuringia,  to  claim  the  crown  of  Germany,  and  supported  him 
with  all  the  influence  and  wealth  of  the  church.  He  was  defeated 
and  wounded  in  the  first  battle,  and  soon  afterward  died,  leaving 
Frederick's  son,  Conrad,  still  King  of  Germany.  In  Italy  the  civil 
war  raged  with  the  greatest  bitterness  and  with  horrible  barbarities 
on  both  sides.  Frederick  exhibited  such  extraordinary  courage  and 
determination  that  his  enemies,  encouraged  by  the  church,  finally 
resorted  to  the  basest  means  of  overcoming  him.  A  plot  formed  for 
his  assassination  was  discovered  in  time  and  the  conspirators  ex- 
ecuted ;  then  an  attempt  was  made  to  poison  him,  in  which  his 
chancellor  and  intimate  friend,  Peter  de  Vinea — his  companion  for 
thirty  years — seems  to  have  been  implicated.  Peter  had  recom- 
mended a  certain  physician,  who  brought  to  the  emperor  a  poisoned 
medicine.  Something  in  the  man's  manner  excited  Frederick's 
mistrust,  and  he  ordered  him  to  swallow  a  part  of  the  medicine. 
When  the  latter  refused  it  was  given  to  a  condemned  criminal,  who 
immediately  died.  The  physician  was  executed  and  Peter  de  Vinea 
sent  to  prison,  where  he  committed  suicide  by  dashing  his  head 
against  the  walls  of  his  cell. 


FREDERICKII  167 

1249-1250 

In  the  same  year,  1249,  Frederick's  favorite  son,  Enzio,  King 
of  Sardinia,  who  even  surpassed  his  father  in  personal  beauty,  in 
accompHshments,  in  poetic  talent,  and  heroic  courage,  was  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Bolognese.  All  the  father's  offers  of  ransom  were 
rejected,  all  his  menaces  defied :  Enzio  was  condemned  to  perpetual 
imprisonment  and  languished  twenty-two  years  in  a  dungeon, 
until  liberated  by  death.  Frederick  was  almost  broken-hearted, 
but  his  courage  never  flagged.  He  was  encompassed  by  enemies, 
he  scarcely  knew  whom  to  trust,  yet  he  did  not  yield  the  least  of  his 
claims.  And  fortune,  at  last,  seemed  inclined  to  turn  to  his  side: 
a  new  rival  king,  William  of  Holland,  whom  the  Pope  had  set  up 
against  him  in  Germany,  failed  to  maintain  himself;  the  city 
of  Piacenza,  in  Lombardy,  espoused  his  cause;  the  Romans, 
tired  of  Innocent  IV.'s  absence,  began  to  talk  of  electing  another 
Pope  in  his  stead;  and  even  Innocent  himself  was  growing  un- 
popular in  France.  Then,  while  he  still  defiantly  faced  the  world, 
and  had  faith  in  his  final  triumph,  his  body  refused  to  support  his 
fiery  spirt.  He  died  in  the  arms  of  his  youngest  son,  Manfred, 
on  December  13,  1250,  fifty-six  years  old.  He  was  buried  at 
Palermo;  and  when  his  tomb  there  was  opened,  in  the  year  1783, 
his  corpse  was  found  to  have  scarcely  undergone  any  decay.  His 
head,  which  lay  on  a  leather  cushion,  bore  a  crown,  and  he  wore 
his  coronation  robes.  The  imperial  orb  was  there,  but,  contrary  to 
usage,  was  surmounted  by  no  cross.  A  cross  sewn  on  to  his  cloak, 
however,  served  as  a  reminder  that  the  mighty  monarch  had  once 
been  on  a  crusade. 

Frederick  II.  was  unquestionably  one  of  the  greatest  men  who 
ever  bore  the  title  of  German  (or  Roman)  emperor,  yet  all  the 
benefits  his  reign  conferred  upon  Germany  were  wholly  of  an  in- 
direct character,  and  were  more  than  balanced  by  the  positive  injury 
occasioned  by  his  neglect.  There  were  strong  contradictions  in  his 
nature  which  make  it  difficult  to  judge  him  fairly  as  a  ruler.  As  a 
man  of  great  learning  and  intelligence  his  ideas  were  liberal;  as 
a  monarch  he  was  violent  and  despotic.  He  wore  out  his  life  trying 
to  crush  the  republican  cities  of  Italy ;  he  was  jealous  of  the  growth 
of  the  free  cities  of  Germany,  yet  granted  them  a  representation  in 
the  diet;  and  in  Sicily,  where  his  sway  was  undisputed,  he  was 
wise,  just,  and  tolerant.  In  his  struggle  with  the  Popes  he  was  far 
in  advance  of  his  age,  and  herein,  although  unsuccessful,  he  was  not 
subdued;  in  reality,  he  was  one  of  the  most  powerful  forerunners 


168  GERMANY 

1250-1256 

of  the  Reformation.    There  are  few  figures  in  European  history  so 
bright,  so  brave,  so  full  of  heroic  and  romantic  interest 

Frederick's  son  and  successor,  Conrad  IV.,  inherited  the 
opposition  to  Pope  Innocent  IV.  The  latter  threatened  with  ex- 
communication all  who  should  support  Conrad,  and  forbade  the 
priests  to  administer  the  sacraments  of  the  church  to  his  followers. 
The  Papal  proclamations  were  so  fierce  that  they  incited  the  Bishop 
of  Ratisbon  to  plot  the  king's  murder,  in  which  he  came  very  near 
being  successful.  WilHam  of  Holland,  whom  the  people  called 
"  the  Priests'  King,"  was  not  supported  by  any  of  the  leading 
German  princes,  but  the  gold  of  Rome  purchased  him  enough  of 
troops  to  meet  Conrad  in  the  field,  and  he  was  temporarily  success- 
ful. The  hostility  of  the  Pope  seems  scarcely  to  have  affected 
Conrad's  position  in  Germany;  but  both  rulers  and  people  were 
growing  indifferent  to  the  imperial  power,  the  seat  of  which  had 
been  so  long  transferred  to  Italy.  They  therefore  took  little  part 
in  the  struggle  between  William  and  Conrad,  and  the  latter's  de- 
feat was  by  no  means  a  gain  to  the  former. 

The  two  rivals,  in  fact,  were  near  their  end.  Conrad  IV. 
went  to  Italy  and  took  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  his  father, 
which  his  stepbrother,  Manfred,  governed  in  his  name.  He  made 
an  earnest  attempt  to  be  reconciled  with  the  Pope,  but  Innocent 
IV.  was  implacable.  He  then  collected  an  army  of  twenty  thousand 
men,  and  was  about  to  lead  it  to  Germany  against  William  of  Hol- 
land, when  he  suddenly  died,  in  1254,  in  the  twenty-seventh  year 
of  his  age.  It  was  generally  believed  that  he  had  been  poisoned. 
William  of  Holland,  since  there  was  no  one  to  dispute  his  claim, 
obtained  a  partial  recognition  of  his  sovereignty  in  Germany ;  but, 
having  undertaken  to  subdue  the  free  farmers  in  Friesland,  he 
was  defeated.  While  attempting  to  escape,  his  heavy  war  horse 
broke  through  the  ice  and  the  farmers  surrounded  and  slew  him. 
This  was  in  1256,  two  years  after  Conrad's  death.  Innocent  IV. 
had  expended  no  less  than  400,000  silver  marks — a  very  large  sum 
in  those  days — in  supporting  him  and  Henry  Raspe  against  the 
Hohenstaufens. 

Conrad  IV.  left  behind  him,  in  Suabia,  a  son  Conrad,  who 
was  only  two  years  old  at  his  father's  death.  In  order  to  distinguish 
him  from  the  latter,  the  Italians  gave  him  the  name  of  Conradino 
(Little  Conrad),  and  as  Conradin  he  is  known  in  German  history. 
He  was  educated  under  the  charge  of  his  mother.  Queen  Elizabeth, 


FREDERICK     II 


169 


1256-1267 

and  his  uncle,  Lewis  XL,  Duke  of  Bavaria.  When  he  was  ten  years 
old  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence  called  a  diet,  at  which  it  was  agreed 
that  he  should  be  crowned  King  of  Germany,  but  the  ceremony  was 
prevented  by  the  furious  opposition  of  the  Pope.  Conradin  made 
such  progress  in  his  studies  and  exhibited  so  much  fondness  for 
literature  and  the  arts  that  the  followers  of  the  Hohenstaufens  saw 
in  him  another  Frederick  11.  One  of  his  poems  is  still  in  existence, 
and  testifies  to  the  grace  and  refinement  of  his  youthful  mind. 

After  Conrad  IV.'s  death  the  Pope  claimed  the  kingdom  of 
Naples  and  Sicily,  as  being  forfeited  to  the  church,  but  found  it 
prudent  to  allow  Manfred  to  govern  in  his  name.  The  latter  sub- 
mitted at  first,  but  only  until  his  authority  was  firmly  established; 
then  he  declared  war,  defeated  the  Papal  troops,  drove  them  back 
to  Rome,  and  was  crowned  king  in  1258.  The  news  of  his  suc- 
cess so  agitated  the  Pope  that  he  died  shortly  afterward.  His 
successor.  Urban  IV.,  a  Frenchman,  who  imitated  his  policy,  found 
Manfred  too  strongly  established  to  be  defeated  without  foreign 
aid.  He  therefore  offered  the  crown  of  southern  Italy  to  Charles 
of  Anjou,  the  brother  of  King  Louis  IX.  of  France.  Physically 
and  intellectually  there  could  be  no  greater  contrast  than  between 
him  and  Manfred.  Charles  of  Anjou  was  awkward  and  ugly, 
savage,  ignorant,  and  bigoted;  Manfred  was  a  model  of  manly 
beauty,  a  scholar  and  poet,  a  patron  of  learning,  a  builder  of  roads, 
bridges,  and  harbors,  a  just  and  noble  ruler. 

Charles  of  Anjou,  after  being  crowned  King  of  Naples  and 
Sicily  by  the  Pope,  and  having  secured  secret  advantages  by  bribery 
and  intrigue,  marched  against  Manfred  in  1266.  They  met  at 
Benevento,  where,  after  a  long  and  bloody  battle,  Manfred  was 
slain,  and  the  kingdom  submitted  to  the  usurper.  By  the  Pope's 
order  Manfred's  body  was  taken  from  the  chapel  where  it  had 
been  buried  and  thrown  into  a  trench ;  his  widow  and  children  were 
imprisoned  for  life  by  Charles  of  Anjou. 

The  boy  Conradin  determined  to  avenge  his  uncle's  death  and 
recover  his  own  Italian  inheritance.  His  mother  sought  to  dis- 
suade him  from  the  attempt,  but  Ludwig  of  Bavaria  offered  to 
support  him,  and  his  dearest  friend,  Frederick  of  Baden,  a  youth 
of  nineteen,  insisted  on  sharing  his  fortunes.  Toward  the  end 
of  1267  he  crossed  the  Alps  and  reached  Verona  with  a  force  of 
io,cx)0  men.  Here  he  was  obliged  to  wait  three  months  for  further 
support,  and  during  this  time  more  than  two-thirds  of  his  Ger- 


170  GERMANY 

1256-1273 

man  soldiers  returned  home.  But  a  reaction  against  the  Guelphs 
(the  Papal  party)  had  set  in;  several  Lombard  cities  and  the 
republic  of  Pisa  declared  in  Conradin's  favor,  and  finally  the 
Romans,  at  his  approach,  expelled  Pope  Urban  IV.  A  revolt 
against  Charles  of  Anjou  broke  out  in  Naples  and  Sicily,  and  when 
Conradin  entered  Rome,  in  July,  1268,  his  success  seemed  almost 
assured.  After  a  most  enthusiastic  reception  by  the  Roman  people 
he  continued  his  march  southward,  with  a  considerable  force. 

On  August  22  he  met  Charles  of  Anjou  in  battle  at 
Tagliacozzo,  and  was  at  first  victorious.  But  his  troops,  having 
halted  to  plunder  the  enemy's  camp,  were  suddenly  attacked  and 
at  last  completely  routed.  Conradin  and  his  friend,  Frederick  of 
Baden,  fled  to  Rome,  and  thence  to  the  little  port  of  Astura,  on 
the  coast,  in  order  to  embark  for  Sicily ;  but  here  they  were  arrested 
by  Frangipani,  the  governor  of  the  place,  who  had  been  specially 
favored  by  the  Emperor  Frederick  II.,  and  now  sold  his  grandson 
to  Charles  of  Anjou  for  a  large  sum  of  money.  Conradin  having 
been  carried  to  Naples,  a  court  of  distinguished  jurists  was  called 
to  try  him  for  high  treason.  With  one  exception,  they  pronounced 
him  guiltless  of  any  crime;  yet  Charles,  nevertheless,  ordered  him 
to  be  executed. 

On  October  29,  1268,  the  last  Hohenstaufen,  a  youth  of 
sixteen,  and  his  friend  Frederick,  were  led  to  the  scaffold.  Charles 
watched  the  scene  from  a  window  of  his  palace;  the  people, 
gloomy  and  mutinous,  were  overawed  by  his  guards.  Conradin 
advanced  to  the  edge  of  the  platform  and  threw  his  glove  among  the 
crowd,  asking  that  it  might  be  carried  to  someone  who  would 
avenge  his  death.  A  knight  who  was  present  took  it  afterward 
to  Peter  of  Aragon,  who  had  married  King  Manfred's  eldest 
daughter.  Then,  with  the  exclamation :  "  Oh,  mother,  what  sor- 
row I  have  prepared  for  thee ! "  Conradin  knelt  and  received  the 
fatal  blow.  After  him  Frederick  of  Baden  and  thirteen  others  were 
executed. 

The  tyranny  and  inhuman  cruelty  of  Charles  of  Anjou  pro- 
voked a  conspiracy  which,  in  the  year  1282,  gave  rise  to  the  massacre 
called  "  the  Sicilian  Vespers."  In  one  night  all  the  French  officials 
and  soldiers  in  Sicily  were  slaughtered,  and  Peter  of  Aragon.  the 
heir  of  the  Hohenstaufens,  became  king  of  the  island.  But  in 
Germany  the  proud  race  existed  no  more,  except  in  history,  legend, 
and  song. 


Chapter    XIX 

THE  INTERREGNUM.     1256-1273 

THE  end  of  the  Hohenstaufen  dynasty  marks  an  important 
phase  in  the  history  of  Germany.  From  this  time  the 
character  of  the  empire  is  radically  changed.  Although 
still  called  "  Roman  "  in  official  documents,  the  term  is  henceforth 
an  empty  form,  and  even  the  word  "  empire  "  loses  much  of  its 
former  significance.  The  Italian  republics  were  now  practically 
independent,  and  the  various  dukedoms,  bishoprics,  principalities, 
and  countships  into  which  Germany  was  divided  were  fast  render- 
ing it  difficult  to  effect  any  unity  of  feeling  or  action  among  the 
people.  The  empire  which  Charlemagne  designed,  which  Otto 
the  Great  nearly  established,  and  which  Barbarossa  might  have 
founded  but  for  the  fatal  ambition  of  governing  Italy,  had  become 
impossible.  Germany  was,  in  reality,  a  loose  confederation  of 
differently  organized  and  governed  states,  which  continued  to  make 
use  of  the  form  of  an  empire  as  a  convenience  rather  than  a  political 
necessity. 

The  events  which  followed  the  death  of  Conrad  IV.  illustrate 
the  corrupt  condition  of  both  church  and  state  at  that  time.  The 
money  which  Pope  Innocent  IV.  so  freely  expended  in  favor  of 
the  anti-kings,  Henry  Raspe  and  William  of  Holland,  had  already 
taught  the  electors  the  advantage  of  selling  their  votes;  so,  when 
William  was  slain  by  the  farmers  of  Friesland,  and  no  German 
prince  seemed  to  care  much  for  the  title  of  emperor  (since  each 
already  had  independent  power  over  his  own  territory),  the  high 
dignity,  so  recently  possessed  by  Frederick  II.,  was  put  up  at  auc- 
tion. Two  bidders  made  their  appearance,  Richard  of  Cornwall, 
brother  of  Henry  III.  of  England,  and  King  Alphonso  of  Castile, 
surnamed  "  the  Wise."  The  Archbishop  of  Cologne  was  the  busi- 
ness agent  of  the  former:  he  received  12,000  silver  marks  for  him- 
self, and  eight  or  nine  thousand  apiece  for  the  dukes  of  Bavaria, 
the  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  and  several  other  electors.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Treves,  in  the  name  of  King  Alphonso,  offered  the  King 

ITl 


17«  GERMANY 

1256-1273 

of  Bohemia,  the  dukes  of  Saxony,  and  the  Margrave  of  Branden- 
burg 20,000  marks  each.  Of  course  both  purchasers  were  elected, 
and  each  was  proclaimed  King  of  Germany  almost  at  the  same 
time.  Alphonso  never  even  visited  his  realm ;  Richard  of  Cornwall 
came  to  Aix-la-Chapelle,  was  formally  crowned,  and  returned  now 
and  then,  whenever  the  produce  of  his  tin  mines  in  Cornwall  enabled 
him  to  pay  for  an  enthusiastic  reception  by  the  people.  He  never 
attempted,  however,  to  govern  Germany,  for  he  probably  had  intelli- 
gence enough  to  see  that  any  such  attempt  would  be  disregarded. 

This  period  (1256- 1273)  was  afterward  called  by  the  people 
"  the  evil  time  when  there  was  no  emperor  " — and  in  spite  of  the 
two  kings,  who  had  fairly  paid  for  their  titles,  it  is  known  in  Ger- 
man history  as  "  the  Interregnum."  It  was  a  period  of  change 
and  confusion,  when  each  prince  endeavored  to  become  an  absolute 
ruler,  and  the  knights,  in  imitating  them,  became  robbers;  when 
the  free  cities,  encouraged  by  the  example  of  Italy,  united  in  self- 
defense,  and  the  masses  of  the  people,  although  ground  to  the 
dust,  began  to  dream  again  of  the  rights  which  their  ancestors  had 
possessed  a  thousand  years  before. 

First  of  all,  the  great  change  wrought  in  Europe  by  the  cru- 
sades was  beginning  to  be  felt  by  all  classes  of  society.  The  at- 
tempt to  retain  possession  of  Palestine,  which  lasted  nearly  two 
hundred  years, — from  the  march  of  the  first  crusade  in  1096  to 
the  fall  of  Acre  in  1291, — cost  Europe,  it  is  estimated,  six  millions 
of  lives  and  an  immense  amount  of  treasure.  The  Catholic  Church 
favored  the  undertaking  in  every  possible  way,  since  each  crusade 
instantly  and  greatly  strengthened  its  power;  yet  the  result  was 
the  reverse  of  what  the  church  hoped  for,  in  the  end.  The  bravery, 
intelligence,  and  refined  manners  of  the  Saracens  made  a  great  im- 
pression on  the  Christian  knights,  and  they  soon  began  to  imitate 
those  whom  they  had  at  first  despised.  New  branches  of  learning, 
especially  astronomy,  mathematics,  and  medicine,  were  brought  to 
Europe  from  the  East;  more  luxurious  habits  of  life,  giving  rise 
to  finer  arts  of  industry,  followed;  and  commerce,  compelled  to 
supply  the  crusaders  and  Christian  colonists  at  such  a  distance, 
was  rapidly  developed  to  an  extent  unknown  since  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire. 

As  men  gained  new  ideas  from  these  changes  they  became 
more  independent  in  thought  and  speech.  The  priests  and  monks 
ceased  to  monopolize  all  knowledge,  and  their  despotism  over  the 


INTERREGNUM  178 

1256-1273 

human  mind  met  with  resistance.  Then,  first,  the  charge  of 
"  heresy  "  began  to  be  heard ;  and  although  during  the  thirteenth 
and  a  part  of  the  fourteenth  centuries  the  Pope  of  Rome  was  un- 
doubtedly the  highest  power  in  Europe,  the  influences  were  already 
at  work  which  afterward  separated  the  strongest  races  of  the  world 
from  the  Catholic  Church.  On  the  one  hand,  new  orders  of  monks 
were  created,  and  monasteries  increased  everywhere;  on  the  other 
hand,  independent  Christian  sects  began  to  spring  up,  like  the 
Albigenses  in  France  and  the  Waldenses  in  Savoy,  and  could  not 
be  wholly  suppressed,  even  with  fire  and  sword. 

The  orders  of  knighthood  which  possessed  a  religious  character 
were  also  established  during  the  crusades.  First,  the  Knights  of 
St.  John,  whose  badge  was  a  black  mantle  with  a  white  cross, 
formed  a  society  to  guard  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Land  and  take  care 
of  the  sick.  Then  followed  the  Knights  Templars,  distinguished 
by  a  red  cross  on  a  white  mantle.  Both  these  orders  originated 
among  the  Italian  chivalry,  and  they  included  few  German  members. 
During  the  third  crusade,  however  (which  was  headed  by  Bar- 
barossa),  the  German  (or  Teutonic)  Order  of  Knights  was  formed, 
chiefly  by  the  aid  of  the  merchants  of  Bremen  and  Lubeck.  They 
adopted  the  black  cross  on  a  white  mantle  as  their  badge,  took  the 
monkish  vows  of  celibacy,  poverty,  and  obedience,  like  the  Templars 
and  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  and  devoted  their  lives  to  war  with 
the  heathen.  The  second  Grand  Master  of  this  order,  Hermann  of 
Salza,  accompanied  Frederick  11.  to  Jerusalem,  and  his  character 
was  so  highly  estimated  by  the  latter  that  he  made  him  a  prince  of 
the  German  Empire. 

Inasmuch  as  the  German  Order  really  owed  its  existence  to 
the  support  of  the  merchants  of  the  northern  coast,  Hermann  of 
Salza  sought  for  a  field  of  labor  wherein  the  knights  might  fulfill 
their  vows  and  at  the  same  time  achieve  some  advantage  for  their 
benefactors.  As  early  as  1199  the  Bremen  merchants  had  founded 
Riga,  taken  possession  of  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Baltic,  and  es- 
tablished German  colonies  there.  The  native  Finnish  or  Lithuanian 
inhabitants  were  either  exterminated  or  forcibly  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  an  order,  called  the  "  Brothers  of  the  Sword,"  was 
established  for  the  defense  of  the  colonies.  This  new  German 
territory  was  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  empire  by  the  country 
between  the  mouths  of  the  Vistula  and  the  Memel,  claimed  by 
Poland,  and  inhabited  by  the  Borussii,  or  Prussians,  a  tribe  which 


174  GERMANY 

1286-1273 

seems  to  have  been  of  mixed  Slavonic  and  Lithuanian  blood.  Her- 
mann of  Salza  obtained  from  Poland  the  permission  to  possess  this 
country  for  the  German  Order,  and  he  gradually  conquered  or 
converted  the  native  Prussians.  In  the  meantime  the  Brothers  of 
the  Sword  were  so  hard  pressed  by  a  revolt  of  the  Livonians  that 
they  united  themselves  with  the  German  Order,  and  thenceforth 
formed  a  branch  of  it.  The  result  of  this  union  was  that  the  whole 
coast  of  the  Baltic,  from  Holstein  to  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  was 
secured  to  Germany,  and  became  civilized  and  Christian. 

During  the  thirty-five  years  of  Frederick  II.'s  reign  and  the 
seventeen  succeeding  years  of  the  Interregnum,  Germany  was  in 
a  condition  which  allowed  the  strong  to  make  themselves  stronger, 
yet  left  the  weaker  classes  without  any  protection.  The  reigning 
dukes  and  archbishops  were,  of  course,  satisfied  with  this  state  of 
affairs;  the  independent  counts  and  barons  with  large  possessions 
maintained  their  power  by  temporary  alliances ;  the  inferior  nobles, 
left  to  themselves,  became  robbers  of  land,  and  highwaymen.  With 
the  introduction  of  new  arts  and  the  wider  extension  of  commerce 
the  cities  of  Germany  had  risen  in  wealth  and  power  and  were  be- 
ginning to  develop  an  intelligent  middle  class,  standing  between  the 
farmers,  who  had  sunk  almost  into  the  condition  of  serfs,  and  the 
lesser  nobles,  most  of  whom  were  equally  poor  and  proud.  Up- 
ward of  sixty  cities  were  free  municipalities,  belonging  to  the 
empire  on  the  same  terms  as  the  dukedoms;  that  is,  they  contributed 
a  certain  proportion  of  men  and  money,  and  were  bound  to  obey  the 
decrees  of  the  imperial  diets. 

As  soon,  therefore,  as  there  was  no  superior  authority  to  main- 
tain order  and  security  in  the  land,  a  large  number  of  the  knights 
became  freebooters,  plundering  and  laying  waste  whenever  oppor- 
tunity offered,  attacking  the  caravans  of  traveling  merchants,  and 
accumulating  the  ill-gotten  wealth  in  their  strong  castles.  Many 
an  aristocratic  family  of  the  present  day  owes  its  inheritance  to  that 
age  of  robbery  and  murder.  The  people  had  few  secured  rights 
and  no  actual  freedom  in  Germany,  with  the  exception  of  Friesland, 
some  parts  of  Saxony,  and  the  Alpine  districts. 

In  this  condition  of  things  the  free  cities  soon  found  it  ad- 
visable to  assist  each  other.  Bremen,  Hamburg,  and  Liibeck  first 
formed  a  union,  chiefly  for  commercial  purposes,  in  1241,  and  this 
was  the  foundation  of  the  famous  Hanseatic  League.  Immediately 
after  the  death  of  Conrad  IV.,  Mayence,  Speyer,  Worms,  Strassburg 


INTERREGNUM  176 

1256-1273 

and  Basel  formed  the  "  Union  of  Rhenish  Cities,"  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  peace  and  the  mutual  protection  of  their  citizens.  Many 
other  cities,  and  even  a  number  of  reigning  princes  and  bishops, 
soon  became  members  of  this  league,  which  for  a  time  exercised 
considerable  power.  These  cities  of  the  Rhine  had  agencies  in 
England  and  other  countries,  carried  on  commerce  on  the  high  seas, 
and  owned  no  less  than  six  hundred  armed  vessels,  with  which  they 
guarded  the  Rhine  from  the  land  pirates  whose  castles  overlooked 
its  course. 

During  this  age  of  civil  and  religious  despotism  the  German 
cities  possessed  and  preserved  the  only  free  institutions  to  be  found. 
They  owed  this  privilege  to  the  heroic  resistance  of  the  republican 
cities  of  Italy  to  the  Hohenstaufens,  which  not  only  set  them  an 
example,  but  fought  in  their  stead.  Sure  of  the  loyalty  of  the 
German  cities,  the  emperors  were  not  so  jealous  of  their  growth; 
but  some  of  the  rights  which  they  conferred  were  reluctantly  given, 
and  probably  in  return  for  men  or  money  during  the  wars  in  Italy. 
The  decree  which  changed  a  vassal  or  dependent  into  a  freeman, 
after  a  year's  residence  in  a  city,  helped  greatly  to  build  up  a  strong 
and  intelligent  middle  class.  The  merchants,  professional  men,  and 
higher  artisans  gradually  formed  a  patrician  society,  out  of  which 
the  governing  officers  were  selected,  while  the  mechanics,  for 
greater  protection,  organzied  themselves  into  separate  guilds,  or 
orders.  Each  of  the  latter  was  very  watchful  of  the  character  and 
reputation  of  its  members,  and  thus  exercised  a  strong  moral  in- 
fluence. The  farmers  only  had  no  such  protection;  very  few  of 
them  were  not  dependent  vassals  of  some  nobleman  or  priest. 

The  cities  in  the  thirteenth  century  began  to  exhibit  a  stately 
architectural  character.  The  building  of  splendid  cathedrals  and 
monasteries,  which  began  two  centuries  before,  now  gave  employ- 
ment to  such  a  large  number  of  architects  and  stone-cutters  that 
they  formed  a  free  corporation,  under  the  name  of  "  Brother-build- 
ers," with  especial  rights  and  privileges,  all  over  Germany.  Their 
labors  were  supported  by  the  power  of  the  church,  the  wealth  of  the 
merchants,  and  the  toil  of  the  vassals,  and  masterpieces  of  Gothic 
architecture  arose  under  their  hands.  The  grand  cathedrals  of 
Strassburg,  Freiburg,  and  Cologne,  with  many  others,  yet  remain  as 
monuments  of  their  genius  and  skill.  But  the  private  dwellings 
also  now  began  to  display  the  wealth  and  taste  of  their  owners. 
They  were  usually  built  very  high,  with  pointed  gables  facing  the 


176  GERMANY 

1256-1273 

Street,  and  adorned  with  sculptured  designs;  frequently  the  upper 
stories  projected  over  the  lower,  forming  a  shelter  for  the  open 
shops  in  the  first  story.  As  the  cities  were  walled  for  defense,  the 
space  within  the  walls  was  too  valuable  to  be  given  to  wide  squares 
and  streets:  hence  there  was  usually  one  open  market-place,  which 
also  served  for  all  public  ceremonies ;  and  the  streets  were  dark  and 
narrow. 

The  universities  now  beg^n  to  exercise  some  influence.  Those 
of  Bologna  and  Padua  were  frequented  by  throngs  of  students,  who 
attended  the  schools  of  law,  while  the  University  of  Salerno,  under 
the  patronage  of  Manfred,  became  a  distinguished  school  of  medi- 
cine. The  Arabic  University  of  Cordova  in  Spain  also  attracted 
many  students  from  all  the  Christian  lands  of  Europe.  Works  on 
all  branches  of  knowledge  were  greatly  multiplied,  so  that  the  copy- 
ing of  them  became  a  new  profession.  For  the  first  time  there  were 
written  forms  of  law  for  the  instruction  of  the  people.  In  the 
northern  part  of  Germany  appeared  a  work  called  "  The  Saxon's 
Looking-Glass  "  (Sachsenspiegel),  which  was  soon  accepted  as  a 
legal  authority  by  the  people.  But  it  was  too  liberal  for  the  priests, 
and  under  their  influence  another  work,  "  The  Suabian's  Looking- 
Glass,"  was  written  and  circulated  in  southern  Germany.  The 
former  book  declares  that  the  emperor  has  his  power  from  God; 
the  latter  that  he  has  it  from  the  Pope.  The  Saxon  is  told  that  no 
man  can  justly  hold  another  man  as  property,  and  that  the  people 
were  made  vassals  through  force  and  wrong ;  the  Suabian  is  taught 
that  obedience  to  rulers  is  his  chief  duty. 

From  these  two  works,  which  are  still  in  existence,  we  learn 
how  complicated  was  the  political  organization  of  Germany.  The 
whole  free  population  was  divided  into  seven  classes,  each  having  its 
own  privileges  and  rules  of  government.  First,  there  was  the 
emperor;  secondly,  the  spiritual  princes,  as  they  were  called  (arch- 
bishops, reigning  bishops,  etc.)  ;  thirdly,  the  temporal  princes,  some 
of  whom  were  partly  or  wholly  "  vassals  "  of  the  spiritual  authority ; 
and  fourthly,  the  counts  and  barons,  who  possessed  territory,  either 
independently,  or  as  feudal  holdings  of  the  second  and  third  classes. 
These  four  classes  constituted  the  higher  nobility.  Seven  princes, 
who  had  especially  wide  lands  and  exercised  great  power,  had  come 
to  be  known  as  "  electors,"  because  they  alone  had  the  right  of 
electing  the  emperor.  There  were  three  spiritual — the  archbishops 
of  Mayence,  Treves,  and  Cologne;  and  four  temporal — the  Count 


INTERREGNUM  177 

1256-1273 

Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  the  Margrave  of 
Brandenburg,  and  the  King  of  Bohemia. 

The  fifth  class  embraced  the  free  citizens  from  among  whom 
magistrates  were  chosen,  and  who  were  allowed  to  possess  certain 
privileges  of  the  nobles.  The  sixth  and  seventh  classes  were  formed 
out  of  the  remaining  freemen,  according  to  their  circumstances  and 
occupations.  The  serfs  and  dependents  had  no  place  in  this  system 
of  government,  so  that  a  large  majority  of  the  German  people  pos- 
sessed no  other  recognized  right  than  that  of  being  ruled  and  pun- 
ished. In  fact,  the  whole  political  system  was  so  complicated  and 
unpractical  that  we  can  only  wonder  how  Germany  endured  it  for 
centuries  afterward. 

At  the  end  of  the  Hohenstaufen  dynasty  there  were  ii6 
priestly  rulers,  lOO  ruling  dukes,  princes,  counts,  and  barons,  and 
more  than  60  independent  cities  in  Germany.  The  larger  duke- 
doms had  been  cut  up  into  smaller  states,  many  of  which  exist, 
either  as  states  or  provinces,  to  this  day.  Styria  and  Tyrol  were 
separated  from  Bavaria;  the  principalities  of  Westphalia,  Anhalt, 
Holstein,  Jiilich,  Berg,  Cleves,  Pomerania,  and  Mecklenburg  were 
formed  out  of  Saxony;  Suabia  was  divided  into  Wiirtemberg  and 
Baden,  the  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine  detached  from  Franconia  and 
Hesse  from  Thuringia.  Each  of  the  principal  German  races  was 
distinguished  by  two  colors — the  Franks  red  and  white,  the  Sua- 
bians  red  and  yellow,  the  Bavarians  blue  and  white,  and  the  Saxons 
black  and  white.  The  Saxon  black,  the  Frank  red,  and  the  Suabian 
gold  were  set  together  as  the  imperial  colors. 

The  chief  service  of  the  Hohenstaufens  to  Germany  lay  in 
their  direct  and  generous  encouragement  of  art,  learning,  and  lit- 
erature. They  took  up  the  work  commenced  by  Charlemagne,  and 
so  disastrously  thwarted  by  his  son  Lewis  the  Pious,  and  in  the 
course  of  a  hundred  years  they  developed  what  might  be  called  a 
golden  age  of  architecture  and  epic  poetry,  so  strongly  does  it  con- 
trast with  the  four  centuries  before  and  the  three  succeeding 
it.  The  immediate  connection  between  Germany  and  Italy,  where 
most  of  Roman  culture  had  survived  and  the  higher  forms  of  civi- 
lization were  first  restored,  was  in  this  single  respect  a  great  advan- 
tage to  the  former  country.  We  cannot  ascertain  how  many  of  the 
nobler  characteristics  of  knighthood  in  that  age  sprang  from  the 
religious  spirit  which  prompted  the  crusades,  and  how  many  orig- 
inated from  intercourse  with  the  refined  and  high-spirited  Sar- 


178  GERMANY 

1256-1273 

acens ;  both  elements  undoubtedly  tended  to  revive  the  almost  for- 
gotten love  of  poetry  in  the  German  race. 

When  the  knights  of  Provence  and  Italy  became  as  proud  of 
their  songs  as  of  their  feats  of  arms ;  when  minstrels  accompanied 
the  court  of  Frederick  II.  and  the  emperor  himself  wrote  poems  in 
rivalry  with  them;  when  the  Duke  of  Austria  and  the  Landgrave 
Hermann  of  Thuringia  invited  the  best  poets  of  the  time  to  visit 
them  and  received  them  as  distinguished  guests,  and  when  wander- 
ing minstrels  and  story-tellers  repeated  their  works  in  a  simpler 
form  to  the  people  everywhere,  it  was  not  long  before  a  new  liter- 
ature was  created.  Walter  von  der  Vogelweide,  who  accompanied 
Frederick  II.  to  Jerusalem,  wrote  not  only  songs  of  love  and  poems 
in  praise  of  nature,  but  satires  against  the  Pope  and  the  priesthood. 
Godfrey  of  Strasburg  produced  an  epic  poem  describing  the  times 
of  King  Arthur  of  the  Round  Table,  and  Wolfram  of  Eschenbach, 
in  his  "  Parsifal,"  celebrated  the  search  for  the  Holy  Grail ;  while 
inferior  poets  related  the  histories  of  Alexander  the  Great,  the  Siege 
of  Troy,  or  Charlemagne's  knight,  Roland.  Among  the  people 
arose  the  story  of  Reynard  the  Fox  and  a  multitude  of  fables ;  and 
finally,  during  the  thirteenth  century,  was  produced  the  celebrated 
Nibelungenlied,  or  Song  of  the  Nibelungen,  wherein  traditions  of 
Siegfried  of  the  Netherlands,  Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth,  and  Attila 
with  his  Huns  are  mixed  together  in  a  powerful  story  of  love, 
rivalry,  and  revenge.  Most  of  these  poems  are  written  in  a 
Suabian  dialect,  which  is  now  called  the  "  Middle  or  Medieval 
High-German." 

Among  the  historical  writers  were  Bishop  Otto  of  Freising, 
whose  chronicles  of  the  time  are  very  valuable,  and  Saxo  Gram- 
maticus,  in  whose  history  of  Denmark  Shakespeare  found  the  ma- 
terial for  his  play  of  "  Hamlet."  Albertus  Magnus,  the  Bishop  of 
Ratisbon,  was  so  distinguished  as  a  mathematician  and  man  of 
science  that  the  people  believed  him  to  be  a  sorcerer.  There  was, 
in  short,  a  general  intellectual  awakening  throughout  Germany,  and, 
although  afterward  discouraged  by  many  of  the  276  smaller  powers, 
it  was  favored  by  others  and  could  not  be  suppressed.  Besides, 
greater  changes  were  approaching.  A  hundred  years  after  Fred- 
erick II.'s  death  gunpowder  was  discovered,  and  the  common  soldier 
became  the  equal  of  the  knight.  In  another  hundred  years  Guten- 
berg invented  printing,  and  then  followed,  rapidly,  the  discovery  of 
America  and  the  Reformation. 


Chapter    XX 

FROM  RUDOLF  OF  HAPSBURG  TO  LEWIS  OF  BAVARIA 

1273-1347 

RICHARD  of  Cornwall  died  in  1272,  and  the  German 
princes  seemed  to  be  in  no  haste  to  elect  a  successor.  The 
-  Pope,  Gregory  X,,  finally  demanded  an  election,  for  the 
greater  convenience  of  having  to  deal  with  one  head  instead  of  a 
multitude;  and  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence  called  a  diet  together 
at  Frankfort  the  following  year.  He  proposed,  as  candidate, 
Count  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  a  petty  ruler  in  Switzerland,  who  had 
also  possessions  in  Alsatia.  Up  to  his  time  the  family  had  been 
insignificant;  but,  as  a  zealous  partisan  of  Frederick  IL,  in  whose 
excommunication  he  had  shared,  as  a  crusader  against  the  heathen 
Prussians,  and  finally,  in  his  maturer  years,  as  a  man  of  great  pru- 
dence, moderation,  and  firmness,  he  had  made  the  name  of  Haps- 
burg generally  and  quite  favorably  known.  His  brother-in-law, 
Count  Frederick  of  Hohenzollem,  the  burgrave,  or  governor,  of 
the  city  of  Nuremberg  (and  the  founder  of  the  present  House  of 
the  Hohenzollerns),  advocated  Rudolf's  election  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  diet.  The  chief  considerations  in  his  favor  were  his 
personal  character,  his  lack  of  power,  and  the  circumstance  of  his 
possessing  six  marriageable  daughters.  There  were  also  private 
stipulations  which  secured  him  the  support  of  the  priesthood,  and 
so  he  was  elected  King  of  Germany. 

Rudolf  was  crowned  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  At  the  close  of  the 
ceremony  it  was  discovered  that  the  imperial  scepter  was  missing, 
whereupon  he  took  a  crucifix  from  the  altar  and  held  it  forth  to 
the  princes  who  came  to  swear  allegiance  to  his  rule.  He  was  at 
this  time  fifty-five  years  of  age,  extremely  tall  and  lank,  with  a 
haggard  face  and  large  aquiline  nose.  Although  he  was  always 
called  "  emperor  "  by  the  people,  he  never  received,  or  even  desired, 
the  imperial  crown  of  Rome.  He  was  in  the  habit  of  saying  that 
Rome  was  the  den  of  the  lion,  into  which  led  the  tracks  of  many 
other  animals,  but  none  was  seen  leading  out  of  it  again. 

179 


180  GERMANY 

1273-1278 

It  was  easy  for  him,  therefore,  to  conclude  a  peace  with  the 
Pope.  He  met  Gregory  X.  at  Lausanne,  and  there  formally  re- 
nounced all  claim  to  the  rights  held  by  the  Hohenstaufens  in  Italy. 
He  even  recognized  Charles  of  Anjou  as  king  of  Sicily  and  Naples, 
and  betrothed  one  of  his  daughters  to  the  latter's  son.  The  Church 
of  Rome  received  possession  of  all  the  territory  it  had  claimed  in 
central  Italy,  and  the  Lombard  and  Tuscan  republics  were  left  for 
a  while  undisturbed.  He  further  promised  to  undertake  a  new 
crusade  for  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem,  and  was  then  solemnly 
recognized  by  Gregory  X.  as  rightful  king  of  Germany. 

But,  although  Rudolf  had  so  readily  given  up  all  for  which  the 
Hohenstaufens  had  struggled  in  Italy,  he  at  once  claimed  their 
estates  in  Germany  as  belonging  to  the  crown.  This  brought  him 
into  conflict  with  Counts  Ulric  and  Eberhard  II.  of  Wurtemberg, 
who  were  also  allied  with  King  Ottokar  II.  of  Bohemia  in  opposi- 
tion to  his  authority.  The  latter  had  obtained  possession  of  Aus- 
tria through  marriage  and  of  all  Styria  and  Carinthia  to  the 
Adriatic  by  purchase.  He  was  ambitious  and  defiant:  some  his- 
torians suppose  that  he  hoped  to  make  himself  Emperor  of  Germany, 
others  that  his  object  was  to  establish  a  powerful  Slavonic  nation. 
Rudolf  did  not  delay  long  in  declaring  him  outlawed,  and  in  calling 
upon  the  other  princes  for  an  army  to  lead  against  him.  The  call 
was  received  with  indifference ;  no  one  feared  the  new  emperor,  and 
hence  no  one  obeyed. 

Gathering  together  such  troops  as  his  son-in-law,  Lewis  of  the 
Bavarian  Palatinate,  could  furnish,  Rudolf  marched  into  Austria, 
after  he  had  restored  order  in  Wiirtemberg.  A  revolt  of  the  Aus- 
trian and  Styrian  nobles  against  Bohemian  rule  followed  this  move- 
ment :  the  country  was  gradually  reconquered,  and  Vienna,  after  a 
siege  of  five  weeks,  fell  into  Rudolf's  hands.  Ottokar  II.  then 
found  it  advisable  to  make  peace  with  the  man  whom  he  had  styled 
"a  poor  count,"  by  giving  up  his  claim  to  Austria,  Styria,  and 
Carinthia,  and  paying  homage  to  the  Emperor  of  Germany.  In 
October,  1276,  the  treaty  was  concluded.  Ottokar  appeared  in  all 
the  splendor  he  could  command,  and  was  received  by  Rudolf  in  a 
costume  not  very  different  from  that  of  a  common  soldier.  "  The 
Bohemian  king  has  often  laughed  at  my  gray  coat,"  he  said ;  "  but 
now  my  coat  shall  laugh  at  him."  Ottokar  was  enraged  at  what  he 
considered  an  insulting  humiliation,  and  secretly  plotted  revenge. 
For  nearly  two  years  he  intrigued  with  the  states  of  northern 


HAPSBURG     AND     BAVARIA  181 

1278-1284 

Germany  and  the  Poles,  collected  a  large  army  under  the  pretext 
of  conquering  Hungary,  and  suddenly  declared  war  against 
Rudolf. 

The  emperor  was  supported  only  by  the  Count  of  Tyrol,  by 
Frederick  of  Hohenzollem,  and  a  few  bishops,  but  he  procured  the 
alliance  of  the  Hungarians,  and  then  marched  against  Ottokar  with 
a  much  inferior  force.  Nevertheless,  he  was  completely  victorious 
in  the  battle  which  took  place,  on  the  River  March,  in  August,  1278. 
Ottokar  was  killed  and  his  Saxon  and  Bavarian  allies  scattered. 
Rudolf  used  his  victory  with  a  moderation  which  secured  him  new 
advantages.  He  married  one  of  his  daughters  to  Wenzel,  Otto- 
kar's  son,  and  allowed  him  the  crown  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia ;  he 
gave  Carinthia  to  the  Count  of  Tyrol,  and  Austria  and  Styria  to  his 
own  sons,  Rudolf  and  Albert.  Toward  the  other  German  princes 
he  was  so  conciliatory  and  forbearing  that  they  found  no  cause  for 
further  opposition.  Thus  the  influence  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg 
was  permanently  founded,  and — curiously  enough,  when  we  con- 
sider the  later  history  of  Germany — chiefly  by  the  help  of  the 
founder  of  the  House  of  Hohenzollern. 

After  spending  five  years  in  Austria  and  securing  the  results 
of  his  victory,  Rudolf  returned  to  the  interior  of  Germany.  A  diet 
held  at  Augsburg  in  1282  confirmed  his  sons  in  their  new  sov- 
ereignties, and  his  authority  as  German  emperor  was  henceforth 
never  seriously  opposed.  He  exerted  all  his  influence  over  the 
princes  in  endeavoring  to  settle  the  numberless  disputes  which  arose 
out  of  the  law  by  which  the  territory  and  rule  of  the  father  were 
divided  among  many  sons — or,  in  case  there  were  no  direct  heirs, 
which  gave  more  than  one  relative  an  equal  claim.  He  proclaimed 
a  national  peace,  or  cessation  of  quarrels  between  the  states,  and 
thereby  accomplished  some  good,  although  the  order  was  only  par- 
tially obeyed.  At  a  diet  which  he  held  in  Erfurt  he  urged  the 
strongest  measures  for  the  suppression  of  knightly  robbery.  Sixty 
castles  of  the  noble  highwaymen  were  razed  to  the  ground,  and 
more  than  thirty  of  the  titled  vagabonds  expiated  their  crimes  on 
the  scaffold.  In  all  the  measures  which  he  undertook  for  the 
general  welfare  of  the  country  he  succeeded  as  far  as  was  possible 
at  such  a  time. 

In  his  schemes  of  personal  ambition,  however,  the  emperor 
was  not  so  successful.  His  attempt  to  make  his  eldest  son  Duke 
of  Suabia  failed  completely.     Then  in  order  to  establish  a  right  to 


182  GERMANY 

1284-1291 

Burgundy,  he  married,  at  the  age  of  sixty-six,  the  sister  of  Count 
Robert,  a  girl  of  only  fourteen.  Although  he  gained  some  few- 
advantages  in  western  Switzerland,  he  was  resisted  by  the  city  of 
Berne,  and  all  he  accomplished  in  the  end  was  the  stirring  up 
of  a  new  hostility  to  Germany,  and  a  new  friendship  for  France, 
throughout  the  whole  of  Burgundy.  On  the  eastern  frontier,  how- 
ever, the  empire  was  enlarged  by  the  voluntary  annexation  of 
Silesia  to  Bohemia,  in  exchange  for  protection  against  the  claims 
of  Poland. 

In  1290  Rudolf's  eldest  son,  of  the  same  name,  died,  and  at  a 
diet  held  the  following  year  the  emperor  endeavored  to  procure 
the  election  of  his  son  Albert  as  his  successor.  A  majority  of  the 
bishops  and  princes  decided  to  postpone  the  question,  and  Rudolf 
left  the  city,  deeply  mortified.  He  soon  afterward  fell  ill,  and, 
being  warned  by  the  physician  that  his  case  was  serious,  he  ex- 
claimed :  "  Well,  then,  now  for  Speyer !  " — the  old  burial-place  of 
the  German  emperors.  But  before  reaching  there  he  died,  in  July, 
1 29 1,  aged  seventy-three  years. 

Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  was  very  popular  among  the  common 
people  on  account  of  his  frank,  straightforward  manner  and  the 
simplicity  of  his  habits.  He  was  a  complete  master  of  his  own 
passions,  and  in  this  respect  contrasted  remarkably  with  the  rash 
and  impetuous  Hohenstaufens.  He  never  showed  impatience  or 
irritation,  but  was  always  good-humored,  full  of  jests  and  shrewd 
sayings,  and  accessible  to  all  classes.  When  supplies  were  short 
he  would  pull  up  a  turnip,  peel  and  eat  it  in  the  presence  of  his  sol- 
diers, to  show  that  he  fared  no  better  than  they ;  he  would  refuse  a 
drink  of  water  unless  there  was  enough  for  all ;  and  it  is  related  that 
once,  on  a  cold  day,  he  went  into  the  shop  of  a  baker  in  Mayence  to 
warm  himself,  and  was  greatly  amused  when  the  good  housewife 
insisted  on  turning  him  out  as  a  suspicious  character.  Neverthe- 
less, he  could  not  overcome  the  fascination  which  the  Hohenstaufen 
name  still  exercised  over  the  people.  The  idea  of  Barbarossa's  re- 
turn had  already  taken  root  among  them,  and  more  than  one  im- 
postor, who  claimed  to  be  the  dead  emperor,  found  enough  of  fol- 
lowers to  disturb  Rudolf's  reign. 

An  imperial  authority  like  that  of  Otto  the  Great  or  Bar- 
barossa  had  not  been  restored ;  yet  Rudolf's  death  left  the  empire  in 
a  more  orderly  condition,  and  the  many  small  rulers  were  more 
willing  to  continue  the  forms  of  government.    But  the  Archbishop 


HAPSBURG     AND     BAVARIA  183 

1291-1298 

Gerard  of  Mayence,  who  had  bargained  secretly  with  Count  Adolf 
of  Nassau,  easily  persuaded  the  electors  that  it  was  impolitic  to  pre- 
serve the  power  in  one  family,  and  he  thus  secured  their  votes  for 
Adolf,  who  was  crowned  shortly  afterward.  The  latter  was  even 
poorer  than  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  had  been,  but  without  either  his 
wisdom  or  honesty.  He  was  forced  to  part  with  so  many  imperial 
privileges  to  secure  his  election  that  his  first  policy  seems  to  have 
been  to  secure  money  and  estates  for  himself.  He  sold  to  the  Vis- 
count of  Milan  the  viceroyalty  over  Lombardy,  which  he  claimed  as 
still  being  a  German  right,  and  received  from  Edward  I.  of  England 
one  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  as  the  price  of  his  alliance  in  a 
war  against  Philip  IV.  of  France.  Instead,  however,  of  keeping 
his  part  of  the  bargain,  he  used  some  of  the  money  to  purchase 
Thuringia  of  the  Landgrave  Albert,  who  was  carrying  on  an  un- 
natural quarrel  with  his  two  sons,  Frederick  and  Dietzmann,  and 
thus  disposed  of  their  inheritance.  Albert  (surnamed  the  Degen- 
erate) also  disposed  of  the  countship  of  Meissen  in  the  same  way, 
and  when  the  people  resisted  the  transfer  their  lands  were  terribly 
devastated  by  Adolf  of  Nassau.  This  course  was  a  direct  inter- 
ference with  the  rights  of  reigning  families,  a  violation  of  the  law 
of  inheritance,  and  it  excited  great  hostility  to  Adolf's  rule  among 
the  other  princes. 

The  rapacity  of  the  new  emperor,  in  fact,  was  the  cause  of  his 
speedy  downfall.  In  order  to  secure  the  support  of  the  bishops  he 
had  promised  them  the  tolls  on  vessels  sailing  up  and  down  the 
Rhine,  while  the  abolition  of  the  same  tolls  was  promised  to  the 
free  cities  on  that  river.  The  Archbishop  of  Mayence  sent  word 
to  him  that  he  had  other  emperors  in  his  pocket,  but  Adolf  paid 
little  heed  to  his  remonstrances.  Albert  of  Hapsburg,  son  of  Ru- 
dolf, turned  the  general  dissatisfaction  to  his  own  advantage.  He 
won  his  brother-in-law,  Wenzel  II.  of  Bohemia,  to  his  side,  and 
purchased  the  alliance  of  Philip  the  Fair  of  France  by  yielding  to 
him  the  possession  of  portions  of  Burgundy  and  Flanders.  After 
private  negotiations  with  the  German  princes,  both  spiritual  and 
temporal,  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence  called  a  diet  together  in  that 
city,  in  June,  1298.  Adolf  was  declared  to  have  forfeited  the 
crown,  and  Albert  was  elected  in  his  stead  by  all  the  electors  except 
those  of  Treves  and  the  Palatinate. 

Within  ten  days  after  the  election  the  rivals  met  in  battle :  both 
had  foreseen  the  struggle,  and  had  made  hasty  preparations  to  meet 


184  GERMANY 

1298-1308 

it.  Adolf  fought  with  desperation,  even  after  being  wounded,  and 
finally  came  face  to  face  with  Albert  on  the  field.  "  Here  you  must 
yield  the  empire  to  me ! "  he  cried,  drawing  his  sword.  "  That 
rests  with  God,"  was  Albert's  answer,  and  he  struck  Adolf  dead. 
After  this  victory  the  German  princes  nevertheless  required  that 
Albert  should  be  again  elected  before  being  crowned,  since  they 
feared  that  this  precedent  of  choosing  a  rival  monarch  might  lead 
to  trouble  in  the  future. 

Albert  of  Hapsburg  was  a  hard,  cold  man,  with  all  of  his 
father's  will  and  energy,  yet  without  his  moderation  and  shrewd- 
ness. He  was  haughty  and  repellent  in  his  manner,  and  from  first 
to  last  made  no  friends.  He  was  one-eyed,  on  account  of  a  singu- 
lar cure  which  had  been  practiced  upon  him.  Having  become  very 
ill,  his  physicians  suspected  that  he  was  poisoned;  they  thereupon 
hung  him  up  by  the  heels  and  took  one  eye  out  of  its  socket,  so  that 
the  poison  might  thus  escape  from  his  head !  The  single  aim  of  his 
life  was  to  increase  the  imperial  power  and  secure  it  to  his  own 
family.  Whether  his  measures  conduced  to  the  welfare  of  Ger- 
many or  not  was  a  question  which  he  did  not  consider,  and  there- 
fore whatever  good  he  accomplished  was  simply  accidental,  and  not 
the  result  of  any  defined  policy. 

Albert's  stubborn  and  selfish  attempts  to  increase  the  power  of 
his  house  all  failed ;  their  only  result  was  a  wider  and  keener  spirit 
of  hostility  to  his  rule.  He  claimed  Thuringia  and  Meissen,  al- 
leging that  Adolf  of  Nassau  had  purchased  those  lands,  not  for 
himself,  but  for  the  empire;  he  endeavored  to  get  possession  of 
Holland,  whose  line  of  ruling  counts  had  become  extinct ;  and  after 
the  death  of  Wenzel  H.  of  Bohemia,  in  1307,  he  married  his  son, 
Rudolf,  to  the  latter's  widow.  But  Counts  Frederick  and  Dietz- 
mann  of  Thuringia  defeated  his  army;  the  people  of  Holland 
elected  a  descendant  of  their  counts  on  the  female  side,  and  the 
emperor's  son,  Rudolf,  died  in  Bohemia,  apparently  poisoned,  be- 
fore two  years  were  out.  Then  the  Swiss  cantons  of  Schwyz,  Uri, 
and  Unterwalden,  which  had  been  governed  by  civil  officers  ap- 
pointed by  the  emperors,  rose  in  revolt  against  him  and  drove  his 
goveniors  from  their  Alpine  valleys.  In  November,  1307,  that 
famous  league  was  formed  by  which  the  three  cantons  maintained 
their  independence  and  laid  the  first  corner-stone  of  the  republic 
of  Switzerland. 

.The  following  May,  1308,  Albert  was  in  Baden  raising  troops 


HAPSBURG     AND     BAVARIA 


1308-1310 


185 


for  a  new  campaign  in  Thuringia.  His  nephew,  John,  a  youth  of 
nineteen,  who  had  vainly  endeavored  to  have  his  right  to  a  part  of 
the  Hapsburg  territory  in  Switzerland  confirmed  by  the  emperor, 
was  with  him,  accompanied  by  four  knights  with  whom  he  had 
conspired.  While  crossing  a  river  they  managed  to  get  into  the 
same  boat  with  the  emperor,  leaving  the  rest  of  his  retinue  upon 
the  other  bank;  then,  when  they  had  landed,  they  fell  upon  him, 
murdered  him,  and  fled.  A  peasant  woman  who  was  near  lifted 
Albert  upon  her  lap  and  he  died  in  her  arms.  His  widow,  the 
Empress  Elizabeth,  took  a  horrible  revenge  upon  the  families  of  the 
conspirators,  whose  relatives  and  even  their  servants,  to  the  number 
of  one  thousand,  were  executed.  One  of  the  knights  who  was 
captured  was  broken  upon  the  wheel.  John,  called  in  history 
"  John  Parricida,"  was  never  heard  of  afterward,  although  one 
tradition  affirms  that  he  fled  to  Rome,  confessed  his  deed  to  the 
Pope,  and  passed  the  rest  of  his  life,  under  another  name,  in  a 
monastery. 

The  German  electors  were  in  no  hurry  to  choose  a  new  em-" 
peror.  They  were  only  agreed  as  to  who  should  not  be  elected — 
that  is,  no  member  of  a  powerful  family ;  but  it  was  not  so  easy  to 
pick  out  an  acceptable  candidate  from  among  the  many  inferior 
princes.  The  church  decided  the  question.  Peter,  Archbishop 
of  Mayence,  intrigued  with  Baldwin,  Archbishop  of  Treves,  in 
favor  of  the  latter's  brother,  Count  Henry  of  Luxemburg.  A 
diet  was  held  at  the  "  King's  Seat,"  on  the  hill  of  Reuse,  near 
Coblentz,  where  the  blast  of  a  hunting-horn  could  be  heard  in  four 
electorates  at  the  same  time,  and  Henry  was  chosen  king.  He  was 
crowned  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  on  January  6,  1309,  as  Henry  VH. 

His  first  aim  was  to  restore  peace  and  order  to  Germany.  He 
was  obliged  to  reestablish  the  Rhine  dues  in  the  interest  of  the 
archbishops  who  had  supported  him,  but  he  endeavored  to  recom- 
pense the  cities  by  granting  them  other  privileges.  At  a  diet  held 
in  Speyer  he  released  the  three  Swiss  cantons  from  their  allegiance 
to  the  House  of  Hapsburg,  gave  Austria  to  the  sons  of  the  murdered 
Albert,  and  had  the  bodies  of  the  latter  and  his  rival,  Adolf  of 
Nassau,  buried  in  the  cathedral  side  by  side.  Soon  afterward  the 
Bohemians,  dissatisfied  with  Henry  of  Carinthia  (who  had  become 
their  king  after  the  death  of  Albert's  son,  Rudolf),  offered  the 
hand  of  Wenzel  H.'s  youngest  daughter,  Elizabeth,  to  Henry's  son, 
John.    Although  the  latter  was  only  fourteen,  and  his  bride  twenty- 


186  GERMANY 

1310-1314 

two  years  of  age,  Henry  gave  his  consent  to  the  marriage,  and  John 
became  king  of  Bohemia. 

In  13  ID  the  new  emperor  called  a  diet  at  Frankfort  in  order  to 
enforce  a  universal  truce  among  the  German  states.  He  outlawed 
Count  Eberhard  of  Wiirtemberg,  and  took  away  his  power  to  create 
disturbance ;  and  then,  Germany  being  quiet,  he  turned  his  attention 
to  Italy,  which  was  in  a  deplorable  state  of  confusion  from  the 
continual  wars  of  the  Guelphs  and  the  Ghibellines.  In  Lombardy 
noble  families  had  usurped  the  control  of  the  former  republican 
cities,  and  governed  with  greater  tyranny  than  even  the  Hohenstau- 
fens.  Henry's  object  was  to  put  an  end  to  their  civil  wars,  insti- 
tute a  new  order,  and — be  crowned  Roman  emperor. 

Toward  the  close  of  13 10  Henry  VII.  crossed  Mont  Cenis  with 
an  army  of  several  thousand  men,  and  was  welcomed  with  great 
pomp  in  Milan,  where  he  was  crowned  with  the  Iron  Crown  of 
Lombardy.  The  poet  Dante  hailed  him  as  a  savior  of  Italy,  and 
all  parties  formed  the  most  extravagant  expectations  of  the  ad- 
vantage they  would  derive  from  his  coming.  The  emperor  seems 
to  have  tried  to  act  with  entire  impartiality,  and  consequently  both 
parties  were  disappointed.  The  Guelphs  first  rose  against  him, 
and  instead  of  peace  a  new  war  ensued.  He  was  not  able  to  march 
to  Rome  until  13 12,  and  by  that  time  the  city  was  again  divided  into 
two  hostile  parties.  With  the  help  of  the  powerful  Colonna  fam- 
ily he  gained  possession  of  the  southern  bank  of  the  Tiber,  and  was 
crowned  emperor  in  the  Lateran  Church  by  a  cardinal,  since  there 
was  no  Pope  in  Rome :  the  Orsini  family,  who  were  hostile  to  him, 
held  possession  of  the  other  part  of  the  city,  including  St.  Peter's 
and  the  Vatican. 

There  were  now  indications  that  all  Italy  would  be  convulsed 
with  a  repetition  of  the  old  struggle.  The  Guelphs  rallied  around 
King  Robert  of  Naples  as  their  head,  while  King  Frederick  of  Sicily 
and  the  republic  of  Pisa  declared  for  the  emperor.  France  and  the 
Pope  were  about  to  add  new  elements  to  the  quarrel,  when  in 
August,  13 13,  Henry  VII.  died  of  poison,  believed  to  have  been 
administered  to  him  by  a  monk  in  the  sacramental  wine.  He  was 
a  man  of  many  noble  personal  qualities,  and  from  whom  much  was 
hoped,  both  in  Germany  and  Italy ;  but  his  reign  was  too  short  for 
the  attainment  of  any  lasting  results. 

When  the  electors  came  together  at  Frankfort,  in  13 14,  it  was 
found  that  their  votes  were  divided    between    two    candidates. 


HAPSBURG    AND     BAVARIA  187 

1314-1324 

Henry  VII. 's  son,  King  John  of  Bohemia,  was  only  seventeen  years 
old,  and  the  friends  of  his  house,  not  believing  that  he  could  be 
elected,  united  on  Duke  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  a  descendant  of  Otto  of 
Wittelsbach.  On  the  other  hand,  the  friends  of  the  House  of  Haps- 
burg,  with  the  combined  influence  of  France  and  the  Pope  on  their 
side,  proposed  Frederick  of  Austria,  the  son  of  the  Emperor  Albert. 
There  was  a  division  of  the  diet,  and  both  candidates  were  elected ; 
but  Lewis  had  four  of  the  seven  chief  electors  on  his  side;  he 
reached  Aix-la-Chapelle  first  and  was  there  crowned,  and  thus  he 
was  considered  to  have  the  best  right  to  the  imperial  dignity. 

Lewis  of  Bavaria  and  Frederick  of  Austria  had  been  bosom- 
friends  until  a  short  time  previous,  but  they  were  now  rivals  and 
deadly  enemies.  For  eight  long  years  a  civil  war  devastated  Ger- 
many. On  Frederick's  side  were  Austria,  Hungary,  the  Palatinate 
of  the  Rhine,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  with  the  German 
nobles  as  a  class;  on  Lewis's  side  were  Bavaria,  Bohemia,  Thur- 
ingia,  the  cities,  and  the  middle  class.  Frederick's  brother,  Leo- 
pold, in  attempting  to  subjugate  the  Swiss  cantons,  the  freedom  of 
which  had  been  confirmed  by  Lewis,  suffered  a  crushing  defeat  in 
the  famous  battle  of  Morgarten,  fought  in  13 15.  The  Austrian 
force  in  this  battle  was  9000,  the  Swiss  1300;  the  latter  lost  15  men, 
the  former  1500  soldiers  and  640  knights.  From  that  day  the 
freedom  of  the  Swiss  was  secured. 

The  Pope,  John  XXII.,  declared  that  he  only  had  the  right  of 
deciding  between  the  two  rival  sovereigns,  and  used  all  the  means 
in  his  power  to  assist  Frederick.  The  war  was  prolonged  until 
1322,  when,  in  a  battle  fought  at  Muhldorf,  near  Salzburg,  the 
struggle  was  decided.  After  a  combat  of  ten  hours  the  Bavarians 
g^ve  way,  and  Lewis  narrowly  escaped  capture ;  then  the  Austrians, 
mistaking  a  part  of  the  latter's  army  for  the  troops  of  Leopold, 
which  were  expected  on  the  field,  were  themselves  surrounded,  and 
Frederick,  with  1400  knights,  taken  prisoner.  Lewis  saluted  Fred- 
erick with  the  words :  "  We  are  glad  to  see  you,  cousin !  "  and  then 
imprisoned  him  in  a  strong  castle. 

There  was  now  a  truce  in  Germany,  but  no  real  peace.  Lewis 
felt  himself  strong  enough  to  send  some  troops  to  the  relief  of 
Lord  Visconti  of  Milan,  who  was  hard  pressed  by  a  Neapolitan 
army,  in  the  interest  of  the  Pope.  For  this  act  John  XXII.  not 
only  excommunicated  and  cursed  him  officially,  but  extended  the 
Papal  interdict  over  Germany.     The  latter  measure  was  one  which 


188 


GERMANY 


1324-1328 


had  formerly  occasioned  the  greatest  dismay  among  the  people, 
but  it  had  now  lost  much  of  its  power.  The  "  Interdict  "  prohibited 
all  priestly  offices  in  the  lands  to  which  it  was  applied.  The 
churches  were  closed,  the  bells  were  silent,  no  honors  were  paid  to 
the  dead,  and  it  was  even  ordered  that  the  marriage  ceremony 
should  be  performed  in  the  churchyards.  But  the  German  people 
refused  to  submit  to  the  interdict;  the  few  priests  who  attempted 
to  obey  the  Pope  were  either  driven  away  or  compelled  to  perform 
their  religious  duties  as  usual. 

The  next  event  in  the  struggle  was  a  conspiracy  of  Leopold  of 
Austria  with  Charles  IV.  of  France,  favored  by  the  Pope,  to  over- 
throw Lewis.  But  the  other  German  princes  who  were  concerned 
in  it  quietly  withdrew  when  the  time  came  for  action,  and  the 
plot  failed.  Then  Lewis,  tired  of  his  trials,  sent  his  prisoner  Fred- 
erick to  Leopold  as  a  mediator,  the  former  promising  to  return  and 
give  himself  up  if  he  should  not  succeed.  Leopold  was  implacable, 
and  Frederick  kept  his  word,  although  the  Pope  offered  to  relieve 
him  of  his  promise,  and  threatened  him  with  excommunication  for 
not  breaking  it.  Lewis  was  generous  enough  to  receive  him  as  a 
friend,  to  give  him  his  full  liberty  and  dignity,  and  even  to  divide 
his  royal  rule  privately  with  him.  The  latter  arrangement  was  so 
unpractical  that  it  was  not  openly  proclaimed,  but  the  good  under- 
standing between  the  two  contributed  to  the  peace  of  Germany. 
Leopold  died  in  1326,  and  Lewis  enjoyed  an  undisputed  authority. 

In  1327  the  emperor  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  undertake 
an  expedition  to  Italy,  his  object  being  to  relieve  Lombardy  from 
the  aggressions  of  Naples,  and  to  be  crowned  emperor  in  Rome  in 
spite  of  the  Pope.  In  this  he  was  tolerably  successful.  He  de- 
feated the  Guelphs  and  was  crowned  in  Milan  the  same  year,  then 
marched  to  Rome  and  was  crowned  emperor  early  in  1328,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Colonna  family,  by  two  excommunicated  bishops. 
Lewis,  however,  soon  became  as  unpopular  as  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors, and  from  the  same  cause — the  imposition  of  heavy  taxes 
upon  the  people  in  order  to  keep  up  his  imperial  state.  He  re- 
mained two  years  longer  in  Italy,  encountering  as  much  hate  as 
friendship,  and  was  then  recalled  to  Germany  by  the  death  of 
Frederick  of  Austria. 

The  Papal  excommunication  which  the  Hohenstaufen  emper- 
ors had  borne  so  easily  seems  to  have  weighed  sorely  upon  Lewis's 
mind.    His  was  a  weak,  vacillating  nature,  capable  of  only  a  lim- 


HAPSBURG     AND     BAVARIA  189 

1328-1338 

ited  amount  of  endurance.  He  began  to  fear  that  his  soul  was 
in  peril,  and  made  the  most  desperate  efforts  to  be  reconciled  with 
the  Pope.  The  latter,  however,  demanded  his  immediate  abdica- 
tion as  a  preliminary  to  any  further  negotiation,  and  was  supported 
in  this  demand  by  the  King  of  France,  who  was  very  ambitious  of 
obtaining  the  crown  of  Germany  with  the  help  of  the  church. 
King  John  of  Bohemia  acted  as  a  go-between,  but  he  was  also 
secretly  pledged  to  France,  and  an  agreement  was  nearly  concluded, 
of  a  character  so  cowardly  and  disgraceful  to  Lewis  that  when  some 
hint  of  it  became  known  there  arose  such  an  angry  excitement  in 
Germany  that  the  emperor  did  not  dare  to  move  further  in  the 
matter. 

John  XXII.  died  about  this  time  (1334)  and  was  succeeded  by 
Benedict  XIL,  a  man  of  a  milder  and  more  conciliatory  nature,  with 
whom  Lewis  immediately  commenced  fresh  negotiations.  He 
offered  to  abdicate,  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  to  undergo 
any  humiliation  which  the  latter  might  impose  upon  him.  Benedict 
was  quite  willing  to  be  reconciled  to  him  on  these  conditions,  but 
the  arrangement  was  prevented  by  Philip  VI.  of  France,  who 
hoped,  like  his  father,  to  acquire  the  crown  of  Germany.  As  soon 
as  this  became  evident  Lewis  adopted  a  totally  different  course.  In 
the  summer  of  1338  he  called  a  diet  at  Frankfort  (which  was  after- 
ward adjourned  to  Reuse,  near  Coblentz),  and  laid  the  matter  be- 
fore the  bishops,  princes,  and  free  cities,  which  were  now  repre- 
sented. 

The  diet  unanimously  declared  that  the  emperor  had  exhausted 
all  proper  means  of  reconciliation,  and  the  Pope  alone  was  responsi- 
ble for  the  continuance  of  the  struggle.  The  excommunication  and 
interdict  were  pronounced  null  and  void,  and  severe  punishments 
were  decreed  for  the  priests  who  should  heed  them  in  any  way. 
As  it  was  evident  that  France  had  created  the  difficulty,  an  alliance 
was  concluded  with  England,  whose  king,  Edward  III.,  appeared 
before  the  diet  at  Coblentz  and  procured  the  acknowledgment  of 
his  claim  to  the  crown  of  France.  Lewis,  as  emperor,  sat  upon  the 
royal  seat  at  Reuse,  and  all  the  German  princes — v/ith  the  excep- 
tion of  King  John  of  Bohemia,  who  had  gone  over  to  France — 
made  the  solemn  declaration  that  the  king  and  emperor  whom  they 
had  elected,  or  should  henceforth  elect,  derived  his  dignity  and 
power  from  God,  and  did  not  require  the  sanction  of  the  Pope. 
They  also  bound  themselves  to  defend  the  rights  and  liberties  of 


190  GERMANY 

1338-1347 

the  empire  against  any  assailant  whatever.  These  were  brave 
words,  but  we  shall  presently  see  how  much  they  were  worth. 

The  alliance  with  England  was  made  for  seven  years.  Lewis 
was  to  furnish  German  troops  for  Edward  III.'s  army  in  return  for 
English  gold.  For  a  year  he  was  faithful  to  the  contract ;  then  the 
old  superstitious  fear  came  over  him,  and  he  listened  to  the  secret 
counsels  of  Philip  VI.  of  France,  who  offered  to  mediate  with  the 
Pope  in  his  behalf.  But  after  Lewis  had  been  induced  to  break 
his  word  with  England,  Philip,  having  gained  what  he  wanted, 
prevented  his  reconciliation  with  the  Pope.  This  miserable  weak- 
ness on  the  emperor's  part  quite  destroyed  his  authority  in  Ger- 
many. At  the  same  time  he  was  imitating  every  one  of  his  imperial 
predecessors  in  trying  to  strengthen  the  power  of  his  family.  He 
gave  Brandenburg  to  his  eldest  son,  Lewis,  married  his  second 
son,  Henry,  to  Margaret  of  Tyrol,  whom  he  arbitrarily  divorced 
from  her  first  husband,  a  son  of  John  of  Bohemia,  and  claimed  the 
sovereignty  of  Holland  as  his  wife's  inheritance. 

Lewis  of  Bavaria  had  now  become  unpopular,  and  when  an- 
other Pope,  Clement  VI.,  in  April,  1346,  hurled  against  him  a  new 
excommunication,  expressed  in  the  most  horrible  terms,  the  arch- 
bishops justified  themselves  for  openly  opposing  the  emperor's  rule. 
They  united  with  the  Pope  in  selecting  Karl,  the  son  of  John  of  Bo- 
hemia (who  fell  by  the  sword  of  the  Black  Prince  the  same  summer, 
at  the  famous  battle  of  Crecy),  and  proclaiming  him  emperor,  in- 
stead of  Lewis.  All  the  cities  and  the  temporal  princes,  except 
those  of  Bohemia  and  Saxony,  stood  faithfully  by  Lewis,  and  Karl 
could  gain  no  advantage  over  him.  He  went  to  France,  then  to 
Italy,  and  finally  betook  himself  to  Bohemia,  where  he  was  a  rival 
monarch  only  in  name. 

In  October,  1347,  Lewis,  who  was  then  residing  in  Munich, 
his  favorite  capital,  was  stricken  with  apoplexy  while  hunting  and 
fell  dead  from  his  horse.  He  was  sixty-three  years  old,  and  had 
reigned  thirty-three  years.  In  German  history  he  is  always  called 
"  Lewis  of  Bavaria."  During  the  last  ten  years  of  his  reign  many 
parts  of  Germany  suffered  severely  from  famine,  and  a  pestilence 
called  "  the  black  death  "  carried  off  thousands  of  persons  in  every 
city.  These  misfortunes  probably  confirmed  him  in  his  supersti- 
tion, and  partly  account  for  his  shameful  and  degrading  policy. 
The  only  service  which  his  long  rule  rendered  to  Germany  sprang 
from  the  circumstance  that,  having  been  supported  by  the  free 


I 


HAPSBURG     AND     BAVARIA 


191 


1347 

cities  in  his  war  with  Frederick  of  Austria,  he  was  compelled  to 
protect  them  against  the  aggressions  of  the  princes  afterward,  and 
in  various  ways  to  increase  their  rights  and  privileges.  There 
were  now  150  such  cities,  and  from  this  time  forward  they  consti- 
tuted a  separate  power  in  the  empire.  They  encouraged  learning 
and  literature,  favored  peace  and  security  of  travel  for  the  sake  of 
their  commerce,  organized  and  protected  the  mechanic  arts,  and 
thus,  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  contributed 
more  to  the  progress  of  Germany  than  all  her  spiritual  and  temporal 
rulers. 


Chapter    XXI 

THE   LUXEMBURG   EMPERORS,   CHARLES   IV.   AND 
WENZEL.     1347-1410 

A  LTHOUGH  the  German  princes  were  nearly  unanimous  in 
/\  the  determination  that  no  member  of  the  House  of  Wittels- 
JL  JL  back  (Bavaria)  should  again  be  emperor,  they  were  by  no 
means  willing  to  accept  Karl  of  Luxemburg.  Some  of  them  took 
up  Gunther  of  Schwarzburg,  a  gallant  and  popular  prince,  who 
seemed  to  have  a  good  prospect  of  success.  In  this  emergency 
Karl  supported  the  pretensions  of  an  adventurer,  known  as  "  the 
False  Waldemar,"  to  Brandenburg,  against  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  and 
thus  compelled  the  latter  to  treat  with  him.  Soon  afterward 
Gunther  of  Schwarzburg  died,  poisoned,  it  was  generally  believed, 
by  a  physician  whom  Karl  had  bribed,  and  by  the  end  of  1348  the 
latter  was  emperor  of  Germany,  as  Karl  or  Charles  IV. 

At  this  time  he  was  thirty-three  years  old.  He  had  been  edu- 
cated in  France  and  Italy,  and  was  an  accomplished  scholar:  he 
both  spoke  and  wrote  the  Bohemian,  German,  French,  Italian,  and 
Latin  languages.  He  was  a  thorough  diplomatist,  resembling  in  this 
respect  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  from  whom  he  differed  in  his  love  of 
pomp  and  state,  and  in  the  care  he  took  to  keep  himself  always  well 
supplied  with  money,  which  he  well  knew  how  and  when  to  use. 
He  had  first  secured  the  influence  of  the  Pope  by  promising  to 
disregard  the  declarations  of  the  diet  of  1338  at  Reuse,  and  by 
relinquishing  all  claims  to  Italy.  Then  he  won  the  free  cities  to  his 
side  by  offers  of  more  extended  privileges ;  and  the  German  princes, 
for  form's  sake,  elected  him  a  second  time,  thus  acknowledging  the 
Papal  authority  which  they  had  so  boldly  defied  ten  years  before. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  Charles  was  to  found,  in  Prague — 
which  city  he  selected  as  his  capital — ^the  first  German  university, 
which  he  endowed  so  liberally  and  organized  so  thoroughly  that  in  a 
few  years  it  was  attended  by  six  or  seven  thousand  students.  For 
several  years  afterward  he  occupied  himself  in  establishing  order 
throughout  Germany,  and  meanwhile  negotiated  with  the  Pope  in 

193 


LUXEMBURG     EMPERORS  193 

1348-1356 

regard  to  his  coronation  as  Roman  emperor.  In  spite  of  his  com- 
plete submission  to  the  latter,  there  were  many  difficulties  to  be 
overcome,  arising  out  of  the  influence  of  France  over  the  Papacy, 
which  was  still  established  at  Avignon.  Charles  arrested  Rienzi, 
"  the  last  Tribune  of  Rome,"  and  kept  him  for  a  time  imprisoned  in 
Prague ;  but  when  the  latter  was  sent  back  to  Rome  as  senator  by 
Pope  Innocent  VI.,  in  1354,  Charles  was  allowed  to  commence  his 
Italian  journey.  He  was  crowned  Roman  emperor  on  April  5, 
1355'  by  a  cardinal  sent  from  Avignon  for  that  purpose.  In 
compliance  with  his  promise  to  Pope  Innocent,  he  remained  in 
Rome  only  a  single  day. 

Instead  of  attempting  to  settle  the  disorders  which  convulsed 
Italy,  Charles  turned  his  journey  to  good  account  by  selling  all 
the  remaining  imperial  rights  and  privileges  to  the  republics  and 
petty  rulers  for  hard  cash.  The  poet  Petrarch  had  looked  forward 
to  his  coming  as  Dante  had  to  that  of  his  grandfather,  Henry  VII., 
but  satirized  him  bitterly  when  he  returned  to  Bohemia  with  his 
money.  He  left  Italy  ridiculed  and  despised,  but  reached  Germany 
with  greatly  increased  power.  His  next  measure  was  to  call  a 
diet  for  the  purpose  of  permanently  settling  the  relation  of  the 
German  princes  to  the  empire,  and  the  forms  to  be  observed  in 
electing  an  emperor.  All  had  learned,  several  centuries  too  late  to 
he  of  much  service,  the  necessity  of  some  established  order  in  these 

[matters,  and  they  came  to  a  final  agreement  at  Metz,  on  Christmas 

^Day,  1356. 

Then  was  promulgated   the   decree  known  as   the  "  Golden 

|BulI,"  which  remained  a  law  in  Germany  until  the  empire  came  to 

|an  end,  just  450  years  afterward.    It  commences  with  these  words: 
Every  kingdom  which  is  not  united  within  itself  will  go  to  ruin: 
for  its  princes  are  the  kindred  of  robbers,  wherefore  God  removes 

■the  light  of  their  minds  from  their  office,  they  become  blind  leaders 
of  the  blind,  and  their  darkened  thoughts  are  the  source  of  many 

^misdeeds."  The  Golden  Bull  confirms  the  custom  of  having  seven 
chief  electors — the  archbishops  of  Mayence,  Treves,  and  Cologne, 
the  first  of  whom  is  arch-chancellor;  the  king  of  Bohemia,  arch- 

fcupbearer;  the  count  palatine  of  the  Rhine,  arch-steward;  the  duke 

fof  Saxony,  arch-marshal,  arid  the  margrave  of  Brandenburg,  arch- 
chamberlain.    The  last  four  princes  receive  full  authority  over  their 

rterritories,  and  there  is  no  appeal,  even  to  the  emperor,  from  their 

^decisions.     Their  rule  is  transmitted  to  the  eldest  son;  they  have  the 


194  GERMANY 

1356-1376 

right  to  coin  money,  to  work  mines,  and  to  impose  all  taxes  which 
formerly  belonged  to  the  empire. 

These  are  its  principal  features.  The  claims  of  the  Pope  to 
authority  over  the  emperor  are  not  mentioned;  the  position  of  the 
other  independent  princes  is  left  very  much  as  it  was,  and  the  cities 
are  prohibited  from  forming  unions  without  the  imperial  consent. 
The  only  effect  of  this  so-called  "  constitution  "  was  to  strengthen 
immensely  the  power  of  the  four  favored  princes,  and  to  encourage 
all  the  other  rulers  to  imitate  them.  It  introduced  a  certain  order, 
and  therefore  was  better  than  the  previous  absence  of  all  law  upon 
the  subject. 

The  remaining  events  of  Charles  IV.'s  life  are  of  no  great 
historical  importance.  In  1363  his  son,  Wenzel,  only  two  years  old, 
was  crowned  at  Prague  as  king  of  Bohemia,  and  soon  afterward 
the  emperor  was  called  upon  by  the  Pope,  Urban  V.,  who  found  that 
his  residence  in  Avignon  was  becoming  more  and  more  a  state  of 
captivity,  to  assist  him  in  returning  to  Rome.  In  1365,  therefore, 
Charles  set  out,  with  a  considerable  force,  entered  southern  France, 
crowned  himself  king  of  Burgundy  at  Aries — which  was  a  hollow 
and  ridiculous  farce — and  in  1368  reached  Rome,  whither  Pope 
Urban  had  gone  in  advance.  Here  his  wife  was  formally  crowned 
as  Roman  empress,  and  he  humiliated  himself  by  walking  from  the 
Castle  of  St.  Angelo  to  St.  Peter's,  leading  the  Pope's  mule  by  the 
bridle — an  act  which  drew  upon  him  the  contempt  of  the  Roman 
people.  He  had  few  or  no  privileges  to  sell,  so  he  met  every 
evidence  of  hostility  with  a  proclamation  of  amnesty,  and  returned 
to  Germany  with  the  intention  of  violating  his  own  Golden  Bull, 
by  having  his  son  Wenzel  proclaimed  his  successor.  His  departure 
marks  the  end  of  German  interference  in  Italy. 

For  ten  years  longer  Charles  IV.  continued  to  strengthen  his 
family  by  marriage,  by  granting  to  the  cities  the  right  of  union  in 
return  for  their  support,  and  by  purchasing  the  influence  of  such 
princes  as  were  accessible  to  bribes.  He  was  so  cool  and  calcu- 
lating, and  pursued  his  policy  with  so  much  patience  and  skill,  that 
the  most  of  his  plans  succeeded.  His  son  Wenzel  was  elected  his 
successor  by  a  diet  held  at  Frankfort  in  January,  1376,  each  of  the 
chief  electors  receiving  one  hundred  thousand  florins  for  his  vote, 
and  this  choice  was  confirmed  by  the  Pope.  To  his  second  son, 
Sigismund,  he  gave  Brandenburg,  which  he  had  obtained  partly  by 
intrigue  and  partly  by  purchase,  and  to  his  third  son,  John,  the 


LUXEMBURG    EMPERORS  195 

1376-1378 

province  of  Lusatia,  adjoining  Silesia.  His  health  had  been  grad- 
ually failing-,  and  in  November,  1378,  he  died  in  Prague,  sixty-three 
years  old.  His  tastes  were  always  Bohemian  rather  than  German ; 
he  preferred  Prague  to  any  other  residence,  and  whatever  good  he 
intentionally  did  was  conferred  on  his  own  immediate  subjects. 
More  than  a  century  afterward  the  Emperor  Maximilian  of  Haps- 
burg  very  justly  said  of  him:  "Charles  was  a  genuine  father  to 
Bohemia,  but  only  a  step-father  to  the  rest  of  Germany." 

During  the  latter  years  of  his  reign  two  very  different  move- 
ments, independent  of  the  imperial  will,  or  in  spite  of  it,  had  been 
started  in  southern  and  northern  Germany.  In  Wurtemberg  the 
cities  united  and  carried  on  a  fierce  war  with  Count  Eberhard,  sur- 
named  the  Greiner  (Whiner).  The  struggle  lasted  for  more  than 
ten  years,  and  out  of  it  grew  various  leagues  of  the  knights  for  the 
protection  of  their  rights  against  the  more  powerful  princes.  In 
the  north  of  Germany  the  commercial  cities,  headed  by  Liibeck, 
Hamburg,  and  Bremen,  formed  a  league  which  soon  became  cele- 
brated under  the  name  of  "  The  Hansa,"  which  gradually  drew  the 
cities  of  the  Rhine  to  unite  with  it,  and  before  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury developed  into  a  great  commercial,  naval,  and  military  power. 

The  Hanseatic  League  had  its  agencies  in  every  commercial 
city,  from  Novgorod  m  Russia  to  Lisbon ;  its  vessels  filled  the  Baltic 
and  the  North  Sea,  and  almost  the  entire  commerce  of  northern 
Europe  was  in  its  hands.  When,  in  1361,  King  Waldemar  111.  of 
|Denmark  took  possession  of  the  Island  of  Gothland,  which  the  cities 
pad  colonized,  they  fitted  out  a  great  fleet,  besieged  Copenhagen, 
finally  drove  Waldemar  from  his  kingdom,  and  forced  the  Danes 
|to  accept  their  conditions.  Shortly  afterward  they  defeated  King 
iHakon  of  Norway.  Their  influence  over  Sweden  was  already  se- 
icured,  and  thus  they  became  an  independent  political  power. 
[Charles  IV.  visited  Liibeck  a  few  years  before  his  death,  in  the  hope 
if  making  himself  head  of  the  Hanseatic  League ;  but  the  merchants 
lyvtre  as  good  diplomatists  as  he,  and  he  obtained  no  recognition 
[whatever.  Had  not  the  cities  been  so  widely  scattered  along  the 
last,  and  each  more  or  less  jealous  of  the  others,  they  might  have 
laid  the  foundation  of  a  strong  North  German  nation;  but  their 
bond  of  union  was  not  firm  enough  for  that. 

The  German  Order,  by  this  time,  also  possessed  an  independ- 
ent realm,  the  capital  of  which  was  established  at  Marienburg,  not 
far  from  Dantzic.     The  distance  from  the  rest  of  the  empire  of  the 


196  GERMANY 

1378-1386 

territory  it  had  conquered  in  eastern  Prussia,  and  the  circumstance 
that  it  had  also  acknowledged  itself  a  dependency  of  the  Papal 
power,  enabled  its  Grand  Masters  to  say  openly :  "  If  the  empire 
claims  authority  over  us,  we  belong  to  the  Pope ;  if  the  Pope  claims 
any  such  authority,  we  belong  to  the  emperor."  In  fact,  although 
the  Order  had  now  been  established  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
it  had  never  been  directly  assisted  by  the  imperial  power;  yet  it 
had  changed  a  great  tract  of  wilderness  inhabited  by  Slavonic  bar- 
barians into  a  rich  and  prosperous  land,  with  fifty-five  cities,  thou- 
sands of  villages,  and  an  entire  population  of  more  than  two  millions, 
mostly  German  colonists.  It  adopted  a  fixed  code  of  laws,  main- 
tained order  and  security  throughout  its  territory,  encouraged 
science  and  letters,  and  made  the  scholar  and  minstrel  as  welcome 
at  its  stately  court  in  Marienburg.  as  they  had  been  at  that  of 
Frederick  II.  in  Palermo. 

There  could  be  no  more  remarkable  contrast  than  between  the 
weakness,  selfishness,  and  despotic  tendencies  of  the  German  em- 
perors and  electors  during  the  fourteenth  century,  and  the  strong 
and  orderly  development  of  the  Hanseatic  League  and  the  German 
Order  in  the  north,  or  of  the  handful  of  free  Swiss  in  the  south. 

King  Wenzel  was  only  seventeen  years  old  when  his  father 
died,  but  he  had  been  well  educated  and  already  possessed  some  ex- 
perience in  governing.  In  fact,  Charles  IV.'s  anxiety  to  secure  the 
succession  to  the  throne  in  his  own  family  led  him  to  force  Wenzel's 
mind  to  a  premature  activity,  and  thus  ruined  him  for  life.  He  had 
enjoyed  no  real  childhood  and  youth,  and  he  soon  became  hard, 
cynical,  willful,  without  morality,  and  even  without  ambitions.  In 
the  beginning  of  his  reign,  nevertheless,  he  made  an  earnest  attempt 
to  heal  the  divisions  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  to  establish  peace 
between  Count  Eberhard  the  Whiner  and  the  united  cities  of 
Suabia. 

In  the  latter  quarrel  Leopold  of  Austria  also  took  part.  He 
had  been  appointed  governor  of  several  of  the  free  cities  by 
Wenzel,  and  he  seized  the  occasion  to  attempt  to  restore  the  au- 
thority of  the  Hapsburg  over  the  Swiss  cantons.  The  latter  now 
numbered  eight,  the  three  original  cantons  having  been  joined  by 
Lucerne,  Zurich,  Glarus,  Zug,  and  Berne.  They  had  been  invited 
to  make  common  cause  with  the  Suabian  cities,  more  than  fifty  of 
which  were  united  in  the  struggle  to  maintain  their  rights ;  but  the 
Swiss,  although  in  sympathy  with  the  cities,  declined  to  march  be- 


LUXEMBURG     EMPERORS  197 

1386-1396 

yond  their  own  territory.  Leopold  decided  to  subjugate  each  sep- 
arately. In  1386,  with  an  army  of  4000  Austrian  and  Suabian 
knights,  he  invaded  the  cantons.  The  Swiss  collected  1300  farm- 
ers, fishers,  and  herdsmen,  armed  with  halberds  and  battle-axes, 
and  met  Leopold  at  Sempach  on  July  9. 

The  4000  knights  dismounted  and  advanced  m  close  ranks, 
presenting  a  wall  of  steel,  defended  by  rows  of  leveled  spears,  to 
the  Swiss  in  their  leathern  jackets.  It  seemed  impossible  to  break 
their  solid  front,  or  even  to  reach  them  with  the  Swiss  weapons. 
Then  Arnold  of  Winkelried  is  said  to  have  stepped  forth  and  said  to 
his  countrymen  :  "  Dear  brothers,  I  will  open  a  road  for  you :  take 
care  of  my  wnfe  and  children!"  and  gathering  together  as  many 
spears  as  he  could  grasp,  he  thrust  them  into  his  own  breast.  The 
Swiss  sprang  into  the  gap,  and  the  knights  began  to  fall  on  all  sides, 
from  their  tremendous  blows.  Many  were  smothered  in  the  press, 
trampled  under  foot  in  their  heavy  armor.  Duke  Leopold  and 
nearly  seven  hundred  of  his  followers  perished,  and  the  rest  were 
scattered  in  all  directions.  It  was  one  of  the  most  astonishing 
victories  in  history.  Two  years  afterward  the  Swiss  were  again 
splendidly  victorious  at  Nafels,  and  from  that  time  they  were  an 
independent  nation. 

The  Suabian  cities  were  so  encouraged  by  these  defeats  of  the 
party  of  the  nobles  that  in  1388  they  united  in  a  common  war 
against  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  Count  Eberhard  of  Wiirtemberg,  and 
the  Count  Palatine  Rupert.  After  a  short  but  very  fierce  and 
wasting  struggle,  they  were  defeated  at  Doffingen  and  Worms, 
deprived  of  the  privileges  for  which  they  had  fought,  and  compelled 
to  accept  a  truce  of  six  years.  In  1389  a  diet  was  held,  which  pro- 
hibited them  from  forming  any  further  union,  and  thus  completely 
reestablished  the  power  of  the  reigning  princes.  Wenzel  endeav- 
ored to  enforce  an  internal  peace  throughout  the  whole  empire,  but 
could  not  succeed :  what  was  law  for  the  cities  was  not  allowed  to 
be  equally  law  for  the  princes.  It  seems  probable  from  many 
features  of  the  struggle  that  the  former  designed  imitating  the 
Swiss  cantons,  and  founding  a  Suabian  republic  if  they  had  been 
successful;  but  the  entire  governing  class  of  Germany,  from  the 
emperor  down  to  the  knightly  highwayman,  was  against  them,  and 
they  must  have  been  crushed  in  any  case,  sooner  or  later. 

For  eight  or  nine  years  after  these  events  Wenzel  remained 
in  Prague,  where  his  reign  was  distinguished  only  by  an  almost 


198  GERMANY 

1396-1400 

insane  barbarity.  He  always  had  an  executioner  at  his  right  hand, 
and  whoever  refused  to  submit  to  his  orders  was  instantly  beheaded. 
He  kept  a  pack  of  bloodhounds,  which  were  sometimes  let  loose 
even  upon  his  own  guests :  on  one  occasion  his  wife,  the  Empress 
Elizabeth,  was  nearly  torn  to  pieces  by  them.  He  ordered  the  con- 
fessor of  the  latter,  a  priest  named  John  of  Nepomuck,  to  be  thrown 
into  the  Moldau  River  for  refusing  to  tell  him  what  the  empress 
had  confessed.  By  this  act  he  made  John  of  Nepomuck  the  patron 
saint  of  Bohemia.  Someone  once  wrote  upon  the  door  of  his  pal- 
ace the  words :  "  Venceslaus,  alter  Nero  "  (Wenzel,  a  second 
Nero)  ;  whereupon  he  wrote  the  line  below:  "  5't  non  fui  adhuc, 
ero"  (If  I  have  not  been  one  hitherto,  I  will  be  now). 

In  short,  Wenzel  was  so  little  of  an  emperor  and  so  much  of  a 
brutal  madman  that  a  conspiracy,  at  the  head  of  which  were  his 
cousin,  Jodocus  of  Moravia,  and  Duke  Albert  of  Austria,  was 
formed  against  him.  He  was  taken  prisoner  and  conveyed  to 
Austria,  where  he  was  held  in  close  confinement  until  his  brother 
Sigismund,  aided  by  a  diet  of  the  other  German  princes,  procured 
his  release.  In  return  for  this  service,  and  probably,  also,  to  save 
himself  the  trouble  of  governing,  he  appointed  Sigismund  vicar  of 
the  empire.  In  1398  he  called  a  diet  at  Frankfort,  and  again  en- 
deavored, but  without  much  success,  to  enforce  a  general  peace. 
The  schism  in  the  Roman  Church,  which  lasted  for  forty  years,  the 
rival  Popes  in  Rome  and  Avignon  excommunicating  and  making  war 
upon  each  other,  had  at  this  time  become  a  scandal  to  Christendom, 
and  the  Papal  authority  had  sunk  so  low  that  the  temporal  rulers 
now  ventured  to  interfere.  Wenzel  went  to  Rheims,  where  he  had 
an  interview  with  Charles  VI.  of  France,  in  order  to  settle  the  quar- 
rel. It  was  agreed  that  the  former  should  compel  Bonifacius  IX.  in 
Rome,  and  the  latter  Benedict  XIII.  in  Avignon,  to  abdicate,  so 
that  the  church  might  have  an  opportunity  to  unite  on  a  single 
Pope ;  but  neither  monarch  succeeded  in  carrying  out  the  plan. 

On  the  contrary,  Bonifacius  IX.  went  secretly  to  work  to  de- 
pose Wenzel.  He  gained  the  support  of  the  four  electors  of  the 
Rhine,  who,  headed  by  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  came  together 
in  1400,  proclaimed  that  Wenzel  had  forfeited  his  imperial  dignity, 
and  elected  the  Count  Palatine  Rupert,  a  member  of  the  house  of 
Wittelsbach  (Bavaria),  in  his  place.  The  city  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 
shut  its  gates  upon  the  latter,  and  he  was  crowned  in  Cologne.  A 
majority  of  the  smaller  German  princes,  as  well  as  of  the  free  cities, 


LUXEMBURG    EMPERORS  199 

1400-1410 

refused  to  acknowledge  him ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  none  of  them 
made  any  movement  in  Wenzel's  favor,  and  so  there  were,  prac- 
tically, two  separate  heads  to  the  empire. 

Rupert  imagined  that  his  coronation  in  Rome  would  secure 
his  authority  in  Germany.  He  therefore  collected  an  army,  entered 
into  an  alliance  with  the  republic  of  Florence  against  Milan,  and 
marched  to  Italy  in  1401.  Near  Brescia  he  met  the  army  of  the 
Lombards,  commanded  by  the  Milanese  general,  Barbiano,  and  was 
so  signally  defeated  that  he  was  compelled  to  return  to  Germany. 
In  the  meantime  Wenzel  had  come  to  a  temporary  understanding 
with  Jodocus  of  Moravia  and  the  Hapsburg  dukes  of  Austria,  and 
his  prospects  improved  as  Rupert's  diminished.  It  was  not  long, 
however,  before  he  quarreled  with  his  brother  Sigismund,  and 
was  imprisoned  by  the  latter.  Then  ensued  a  state  of  general  con- 
fusion, the  cause  of  which  is  easy  to  understand,  but  the  features  of 
which  it  is  not  easy  to  make  clear. 

A  number  of  reigning  princes  and  cities  held  a  convention  at 
Marbach  in  1405,  and  formed  a  temporary  union,  the  object  of 
which  was  evidently  to  create  a  third  power  in  the  empire.  Both 
Rupert  and  Wenzel  at  first  endeavored  to  break  up  this  new  league, 
and  then,  failing  in  the  attempt,  both  intrigued  for  its  support. 
The  Archbishop  of  Mayence  and  the  Margrave  of  Baden,  who  stood 
at  its  head,  were  secretly  allied  with  France;  the  smaller  princes 
were  ambitious  to  gain  for  themselves  a  power  equal  to  that  of  the 
seven  electors,  and  the  cities  hoped  to  recover  some  of  their  lost 
rights.  The  League  of  Marbach,  as  it  is  called  in  history,  had  as 
little  unity  or  harmony  as  the  empire  itself.  All  Germany  was 
given  up  to  anarchy,  and  seemed  on  the  point  of  falling  to  pieces. 
So  much  had  the  famous  Golden  Bull  of  Charles  IV,  accomplished 
in  fifty  years ! 

On  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Baltic,  also,  the  march  of  German 
civilization  received  an  almost  fatal  check.  The  two  strongest 
neighbors  of  the  German  Order,  the  Poles  and  Lithuanians,  were 
now  united  under  one  crown,  and  they  defeated  the  army  of  the 
Order,  60,000  strong,  under  the  walls  of  Wilna,  in  1389.  After 
an  unsatisfactory  peace  of  some  years,  hostilities  were  again  re- 
sumed, and  both  sides  prepared  for  a  desperate  and  final  struggle. 
Each  raised  an  army  of  more  than  100,000  men,  among  whom,  on 
the  Polish  side,  there  were  40,000  Russians  and  Tartars.  The  de- 
cisive battle  was  fought  at  Tannenberg  in  July,   1410,  and  the 


200  GERMANY 

1410 

German  Order,  after  losing  40,000  men,  retreated  from  the  field.  It 
was  compelled  to  give  up  a  portion  of  its  territory  to  Poland  and 
pay  a  heavy  tribute.  From  that  day  its  power  was  broken,  and  the 
Slavonic  races  encroached  more  and  more  upon  the  Germans  along 
the  Baltic. 

During  this  same  period  Holland  was  rapidly  becoming 
estranged  from  the  German  Empire,  and  France  had  obtained  pos- 
session of  the  greater  part  of  Flanders.  Luxemburg  and  part  of 
Lorraine  were  incorporated  with  Burgundy,  which  was  rising  in 
power  and  importance,  and  had  become  practically  independent  of 
Germany.  There  was  now  no  one  to  guard  the  ancient  boundaries, 
and  probably  nothing  but  the  war  between  England  and  France 
prevented  the  latter  kingdom  from  greatly  increasing  her  territory 
at  the  expense  of  the  empire. 

Although  Rupert  of  the  Palatine  acquired  but  a  limited  au- 
thority in  southern  Germany,  he  is  generally  classed  among  the 
German  emperors,  perhaps  because  Wenzel's  power,  after  the  year 
1400,  was  no  greater  than  his  own.  The  confusion  and  uncertainty 
in  regard  to  the  imperial  dignity  lasted  until  1410,  when  Rupert  de- 
termined to  make  war  upon  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence — ^who  had 
procured  his  election,  and  since  the  League  of  Marbach  was  his 
chief  enemy — as  the  first  step  toward  establishing  his  authority.  In 
the  midst  of  his  preparations  he  died,  on  May  18,  1410. 


Chapter    XXII 

THE   REIGN   OF   SIGISMUND  AND  THE   HUSSITE  WAR 

1410-1438 

IN  14 10,  the  year  of  Rupert's  death,  Europe  was  shocked  by  the 
spectacle  of  three  emperors  in  Germany,  and  three  Popes  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  all  claiming  to  rule  at  the  same  time.  The 
diet  was  divided  between  Sigismund  and  Jodocus  of  Moravia,  both 
of  whom  were  declared  elected,  while  Wenzel  insisted  that  he  was 
still  emperor.  A  council  held  at  Pisa  about  the  same  time  deposed 
Pope  Gregory  XII.  in  Rome  and  Pope  Benedict  XIII.  in  Avignon, 
and  elected  a  third,  who  took  the  name  of  Alexander  V.  But 
neither  of  the  former  obeyed  the  decrees  of  the  council.  Gregory 
XII.  betook  himself  to  Rimini,  Alexander,  soon  succeeded  by  John 
XXIII.,  reigned  in  Rome,  and  the  three  spiritual  rivals  began  a 
renewed  war  of  proclamations  and  interdictions. 

The  political  rivalry  in  Germany  did  not  last  long.  Jodocus 
of  Moravia,  of  whom  an  old  historian  says :  "  He  was  considered 
a  great  man,  but  there  v/as  nothing  great  about  him  except  his 
beard,"  died  soon  after  his  partial  election,  Wenzel  was  persuaded 
to  give  up  his  opposition,  and  Sigismund  was  generally  recognized 
as  the  sole  emperor.  In  addition  to  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg, 
which  he  had  received  from  his  father,  Charles  IV.,  he  had  ob- 
tained the  crown  of  Hungary  through  his  wife,  and  claimed  also 
the  kingdoms  of  Bosnia  and  Dalmatia.  He  had  fought  the  Turks 
on  the  lower  Danube,  had  visited  Constantinople,  and  was  already 
distinguished  for  his  courage  and  knightly  bearing.  Unlike  his 
brother  Wenzel,  who  had  the  black  hair  and  high  cheekbones  of  a 
Bohemian,  he  was  blond-haired,  blue-eyed,  and  strikingly  hand- 
some. He  spoke  several  languages,  was  witty  in  speech,  cheerful 
in  demeanor,  and  popular  with  all  classes,  but,  unfortunately,  both 
fickle  and  profligate.  Moreover,  he  was  one  of  the  vainest  men 
that  ever  wore  a  crown. 

Before  Sigismund  entered  upon  his  reign  the  actions  of  the 
Roman  clergy  had  given  rise  to  a  new  and  powerful  religious  move- 
ment in  Bohemia.      As  early  as  1360  independent  preachers  had 

201 


202  GERMANY 

1360-1410 

arisen  among  the  people  there,  advocating  the  pure  truths  of  the 
Gospel,  and  exhorting  their  hearers  to  turn  their  backs  on  the  pride 
and  luxury  which  prevailed,  to  live  simply  and  righteously,  and  do 
good  to  their  fellow-men.  Although  persecuted  by  the  priests,  they 
found  many  followers,  and  their  example  soon  began  to  be  more 
widely  felt,  especially  as  Wickliffe,  in  England,  was  preaching  a 
similar  doctrine  at  the  same  time.  The  latter's  translation  of  the 
Bible  was  finished  in  1383,  and  portions  of  it,  together  with  his 
other  writings  in  favor  of  a  reformation  of  the  Christian  Church, 
were  carried  to  Prague  soon  afterward. 

The  great  leader  of  the  movement  in  Bohemia  was  John 
Huss,  who  was  born  in  1369,  studied  at  the  University  of  Prague, 
became  a  teacher  there,  and  at  the  same  time  a  defender  of  Wickliffe's 
doctrines,  in  1398,  and  four  years  afterward,  in  spite  of  the  fierce 
opposition  of  the  clergy,  was  made  rector  of  the  university.  With 
him  was  associated  Jerome  (Hieronymus),  a  young  Bohemian 
nobleman,  who  had  studied  at  Oxford,  and  was  also  inspired  by 
Wickliffe's  writings.  The  learning  and  lofty  personal  character  of 
both  g^ve  them  an  influence  in  Prague,  which  gradually  extended 
over  all  Bohemia.  Huss  preached  with  the  greatest  earnestness 
and  eloquence  against  the  doctrine  of  absolution,  the  revering  of 
saints  and  images,  the  trade  in  offices  and  indulgences,  and  the  idea 
of  a  purgatory  from  which  souls  could  be  freed  by  masses  celebrated 
on  their  behalf.  He  advocated  a  return  to  the  simplicity  of  the  early 
Christian  Church,  especially  in  the  use  of  the  sacrament  (com- 
munion). The  form  of  administering  the  sacrament  had  been 
changed,  the  laymen  receiving  only  bread,  while  the  priests  partook 
of  both  bread  and  wine.  Huss,  and  the  sect  which  took  his  name, 
demanded  that  it  should  be  administered  to  all  "  in  both  forms." 

The  first  consequence  of  the  preaching  of  Huss  was  a  division 
between  the  Bohemians  and  Germans,  in  the  University  of  Prague. 
The  Germans  took  the  part  of  Rome,  but  the  Bohemians  secured 
the  support  of  King  Wenzel  through  his  queen,  who  was  a  fol- 
lower of  Huss,  and  maintained  their  ascendency.  Thereupon  the 
German  professors  and  students,  numbering  five  thousand,  left 
Prague  in  a  body,  in  1409,  and  migrated  to  Leipzig,  where  they 
founded  a  new  university.  These  matters  were  reported  to  the 
Roman  Pope,  who  immediately  excommunicated  Huss  and  his  fol- 
lowers. Soon  afterward  the  Pope  (John  XXHI.),  desiring  to 
subdue  the  king  of  Naples,  offered  pardons  and  indulgences  to 


REIGN     OF     SIGISMUND  203 

1410-1414 

all  who  would  take  up  arms  on  his  side.  Huss  and  Jerome 
preached  against  this  proposition,  and  the  latter  publicly  burned 
the  Pope's  bull  in  the  streets  of  Prague.  The  conflict  now  became 
so  fierce  that  Wenzel  banished  both  from  the  city,  many  of  Huss's 
friends  among  the  clergy  fell  away  from  him,  and  he  offered  to 
submit  his  doctrines  to  a  general  council  of  the  church. 

Such  a  council,  in  fact,  was  then  demanded  by  all  Christen- 
dom. The  intelligent  classes  in  all  countries  felt  that  the  demorali- 
zation caused  by  the  mismanagement  of  the  clergy  and  the  scandalous 
quarrels  of  three  rival  Popes  could  no  longer  be  endured.  The 
council  at  Pisa,  in  1409,  had  only  made  matters  worse  by  adding 
another  Pope  to  the  two  at  Rome  and  Avignon;  for,  although  it 
claimed  the  highest  spiritual  authority  on  earth,  it  was  not  obeyed. 
The  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Paris  called  upon  the  Emperor 
Sigismund  to  move  in  favor  of  a  new  council;  all  the  Christian 
powers  of  Europe  promised  their  support,  and  finally  one  of  the 
Popes,  John  XXIII.,  being  driven  from  Rome,  was  persuaded  to 
agree,  so  that  a  grand  ecumenical  council,  with  authority  over  the 
Papacy,  was  summoned  to  meet  in  the  city  of  Constance  in  the 
autumn  of  the  year  1414. 

It  was  one  of  the  most  imposing  assemblies  ever  held  in  Eu- 
rope. Pope  John  XXIII.  personally  appeared,  accompanied  by 
600  Italians;  the  other  two  Popes  sent  ambassadors  to  represent 
their  interests.  The  patriarchs  of  Jerusalem,  Constantinople,  and 
Aquileia,  the  grand  masters  of  the  knightly  orders,  33  cardinals,  20 
archbishops,  200  bishops  and  many  thousand  priests  and  monks 
were  present.  Then  came  the  Emperor  Sigismund,  the  representa- 
tives of  all  Christian  powers,  including  the  Byzantine  emperor,  and 
even  an  envoy  from  the  Turkish  sultan,  with  1600  princes  and  their 
followers.  The  entire  concourse  of  strangers  at  Constance  was 
computed  at  150,000,  and  thirty  different  languages  were  heard  at 
the  same  time.  A  writer  of  the  day  thus  describes  the  characteris- 
tics of  the  four  principal  races :  "  The  Germans  are  impetuous, 
but  have  much  endurance;  the  French  are  boastful  and  arrogant; 
the  English  prompt  and  sagacious;  and  the  Italians  subtle  and  in- 
triguing." Gamblers,  mountebanks,  and  dramatic  performers  were 
also  on  hand;  great  tournaments,  races,  and  banquets  were  con- 
stantly held ;  yet,  although  the  council  lasted  four  years,  there  was 
no  disturbance  of  the  public  order,  no  increase  in  the  cost  of  living, 
and  no  epidemic  diseases  in  the  crowded  camps. 


204 


GERMANY 


1414-1415 

The  professed  objects  of  the  council  were  a  reformation  of 
the  church,  its  reorganization  under  a  single  head,  and  the  sup- 
pression of  heresy.  The  members  were  divided  into  four  "  na- 
tions " — the  German,  including  the  Bohemians,  Hungarians,  Poles, 
Russians,  and  Greeks;  the  French,  including  Normans,  Spaniards, 
and  Portuguese;  the  English,  including  Irish,  Scotch,  Danes,  Nor- 
wegians, and  Swedes;  and  the  Italian,  embracing  all  the  different 
states  from  the  Alps  to  Sicily.  E^ch  of  these  nations  held  its  own 
separate  convention,  and  cast  a  single  vote,  so  that  no  measure 
could  be  carried  unless  three  of  the  four  nations  were  in  favor  of  it. 
Germany  and  England  advocated  the  reformation  of  the  church 
as  the  first  and  most  important  question;  France  and  Italy  cared 
only  to  have  the  quarrel  of  the  Popes  settled,  and  finally  persuaded 
England  to  join  them.  Thus  the  reformation  was  postponed,  and 
that  was  practically  the  end  of  it. 

As  soon  as  it  became  evident  that  all  three  of  the  Popes  would 
be  deposed  by  the  council,  John  XXIII.  fled  from  Constance  in 
disguise,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Hapsburg  duke,  Frederick  of 
Austria.  Both  were  captured ;  the  Pope  was  imprisoned  at  Heidel- 
berg, and  Frederick  was  declared  to  have  forfeited  his  lands.  Al- 
though Austria  was  afterward  restored  to  him,  all  the  Hapsburg 
territory  lying  between  Zurich,  the  Rhine,  and  the  Lake  of  Constance 
was  given  to  Switzerland,  and  has  remained  Swiss  ever  since.  A 
second  Pope,  Gregory  XII.,  now  voluntarily  abdicated,  but  the 
third,  Benedict  XIII.,  refused  to  follow  the  example,  and  main- 
tained a  sort  of  Papal  authority  in  Spain  until  his  death.  The 
council  elected  a  member  of  the  family  of  Colonna,  in  Rome,  who 
took  the  name  of  Martin  V.  The  four  nations  took  up  the  question 
of  suppressing  heresy. 

Huss,  to  whom  the  emperor  had  sent  a  safe  conduct  for  the 
journey  to  and  from  Constance,  and  who  was  escorted  by  three 
Bohemian  knights,  was  favorably  received  by  the  people  on  the 
way.  He  reached  Constance  in  November,  14 14,  and  was  soon 
afterward — before  any  examination — ^arrested  and  thrown  into 
a  dungeon  so  foul  that  he  became  seriously  ill.  Sigismund  insisted 
that  he  should  be  released,  but  the  cardinals  and  bishops  were  so 
embittered  against  him  that  they  defied  the  emperor's  authority. 
All  that  the  latter  could  (or  did)  do  for  him  was  to  procure  for 
him  a  trial,  which  began  on  June  7,  141 5. 

On  July  6  the  council  assembled  in  the  cathedral  of  Con- 


REIGN     OF     SIGISMUND  205 

1415-1418 

Stance.  After  mass  had  been  celebrated,  Huss,  who  had  stead- 
fastly refused  to  recant,  was  led  before  the  congregation  of  priests 
and  princes,  and  clothed  as  a  priest,  to  make  his  condemnation  more 
solemn.  A  bishop  read  the  charges  against  him,  and  then  each 
article  of  the  priestly  dress  was  stripped  from  him.  The  same  day 
Huss  was  publicly  burned  to  death.  On  arriving  at  the  stake  he 
knelt  and  prayed  so  fervently  that  the  common  people  began 
to  doubt  whether  he  really  was  a  heretic.  Being  again  offered 
a  chance  to  retract,  he  declared  in  a  loud  voice  that  he  would  seal 
by  his  death  the  truth  of  all  he  had  taught.  After  the  torch 
had  been  applied  to  the  pile,  he  was  heard  to  cry  out,  three  times, 
from  the  midst  of  the  flames:  "Jesus  Christ,  son  of  the  Living 
God,  have  mercy  upon  me !  "  Then  his  voice  failed,  and  in  a  short 
time  nothing  was  left  of  his  body  except  a  handful  of  ashes,  which 
were  thrown  into  the  Rhine. 

Huss's  friend  Jerome,  who  came  to  Constance  on  the  express 
promise  of  the  council  that  he  should  not  be  imprisoned  before  a 
fair  hearing,  was  thrown  into  a  dungeon  as  soon  as  he  arrived, 
and  so  broken  down  by  sickness  and  cruelty  that  in  September, 
141 5,  he  promised  to  give  up  his  doctrines.  But  he  soon  recovered 
from  this  weakness,  declared  anew  the  truth  of  all  he  had  taught, 
and  defended  himself  before  the  council  in  a  speech  of  remarkable 
power  and  eloquence.  He  was  condemned  and  burned  at  the  stake 
on  May  30,  14 16. 

The  fate  of  Huss  and  Jerome  created  an  instant  and  fierce 
excitement  among  the  Bohemians.  An  address,  defending  them 
against  the  charge  of  heresy  and  protesting  against  the  injustice 
and  barbarity  of  the  council,  was  signed  by  four  or  five  hundred 
nobles  and  forwarded  to  Constance.  The  only  result  was  that 
the  council  decreed  that  no  safe  conduct  could  be  allowed  to  protect 
a  heretic,  that  the  University  of  Prague  must  be  reorganized,  and 
the  strongest  measures  applied  to  suppress  the  Hussite  doctrines 
in  Bohemia.  This  was  a  defiance  which  the  Bohemians  coura- 
geously accepted.  Men  of  all  classed  united  in  proclaiming  that  the 
doctrines  of  Huss  should  be  freely  taught  and  that  no  interdict 
of  the  church  should  be  enforced.  The  university,  and  even  Wen- 
zel's  queen,  Sophia,  favored  this  movement,  which  soon  became 
so  powerful  that  all  priests  who  refused  to  administer  the  sacrament 
"  in  both  forms  "  were  driven  from  their  churches. 

The  council  sat  at  Constance  until  May,  1418,  when  it  was 


206  GERMANY 

1418-1419 

dissolved  by  Pope  Martin  V.  without  having  accomplished  any- 
thing whatever  tending  to  a  permanent  reformation  of  the  church. 
The  only  political  event  of  importance  during  this  time  was  a  busi- 
ness transaction  of  Sigismund's,  the  results  of  which,  reaching  to 
our  day,  have  decided  the  fate  of  Germany.  In  141 1  the  emperor 
was  in  great  need  of  ready  money,  and  borrowed  one  hundred  thou- 
sand florins  of  Frederick  of  Hohenzollern,  the  Burgrave  (Burg- 
graf,  "Count  of  the  Castle")  of  Nuremberg,  a  direct  descendant 
of  the  Hohenzollern  who  had  helped  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  to  the 
imperial  crown.  Sigismund  gave  his  creditor  a  mortgage  on  the 
territory  of  Brandenburg,  which  had  fallen  into  a  state  of  great 
disorder.  Frederick  at  once  removed  thither,  and  in  his  own  pri- 
vate interests  undertook  to  govern  the  country.  He  showed  so 
much  ability,  and  was  so  successful  in  quelling  the  robber  knights 
and  establishing  order,  that  in  141 5  Sigism.und  offered  to  sell  him 
the  sovereignty  of  Brandenburg  (which  made  him,  at  the  same 
time,  an  elector  of  the  empire)  for  the  additional  sum  of  300,000 
gold  florins.  Frederick  accepted  the  terms,  and  settled  permanently 
in  the  little  state  which  afterward  became  tlie  nucleus  of  the  king- 
dom of  Prussia,  of  which  his  own  lineal  descendants  are  now  the 
rulers. 

When  the  Council  of  Constance  was  dissolved  Sigismund 
hastened  to  Hungary  to  carry  on  a  new  war  with  the  Turks,  who 
were  already  extending  their  conquests  along  the  Danube.  The 
Hussites  in  Bohemia  employed  this  opportunity  to  organize  them- 
selves for  resistance;  40,000  of  them,  in  July,  1419,  assembled  on 
a  mountain  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  "  Tabor,"  and  chose 
as  their  leader  a  nobleman  who  was  surnamed  Ziska,  "  the  one- 
eyed."  The  excitement  soon  rose  to  such  a  pitch  that  several 
monasteries  were  stormed  and  plundered.  King  Wenzel  arrested 
some  of  the  ringleaders,  but  this  only  inflamed  the  spirit  of  the 
people.  They  formed  a  procession  in  Prague,  marched  through  the 
city,  carrying  the  sacramental  cup  at  their  head,  and  took  forcible 
possession  of  several  churches.  When  they  halted  before  the 
city  hall  to  demand  the  release  of  their  imprisoned  brethren,  stones 
were  thrown  at  them  from  the  windows,  whereupon  they  broke 
into  the  building  and  hurled  the  burgomaster  and  six  other  of!icials 
upon  the  upheld  spears  of  those  below.  The  news  of  this  event 
so  excited  Wenzel  that  he  was  stricken  with  apoplexy  and  died 
two  weeks  afterward. 


REIGN     OF     SIGISMUND  207 

1419-1420 

The  Hussites  were  already  divided  into  two  parties,  one  mod- 
erate in  its  demands,  called  the  "  Calixtines,"  from  the  Latin  calix, 
a  chalice,  which  was  their  symbol,  because  they  believed  that  the  cup 
of  wine  at  communion  should  be  given  to  the  laity  as  well  as  the 
bread;  it  was  the  custom  in  the  Catholic  Church  for  the  clergy, 
only,  to  take  the  communion  in  "  two  kinds."  The  other  party, 
more  radical  and  fanatic,  called  the  "  Taborites,"  proclaimed  their 
separation  from  the  Church  of  Rome  and  a  new  system  of  brotherly 
equality  through  which  they  expected  to  establish  the  millennium 
upon  earth.  The  exigencies  of  their  situation  obliged  these  two 
parties  to  unite  in  common  defense  against  the  forces  of  the  church 
and  the  empire  during  the  sixteen  years  of  war  which  followed; 
but  they  always  remained  separated  in  their  religious  views,  and 
mutually  intolerant.  Ziska,  who  called  himself  "  John  Ziska  of  the 
Chalice,  commander  in  the  hope  of  God  of  the  Taborites,"  had  been 
a  friend  and  was  an  ardent  follower  of  Huss.  He  was  an  old  man, 
bald-headed,  short,  broad-shouldered,  with  a  deep  furrow  across 
his  brow,  an  enormous  aquiline  nose,  and  a  short  red  mustache. 
In  his  genius  for  military  operations  he  ranks  among  the  great 
commanders  of  the  world.  His  quickness,  energy,  and  inventive 
talent  were  marvelous,  but  at  the  same  time  he  knew  neither  tol- 
erance nor  mercy. 

Ziska's  first  policy  was  to  arm  the  Bohemians.  He  introduced 
among  them  the  "  thunder-guns  " — small  field-pieces  which  had 
been  used  at  the  battle  of  Agincourt,  between  England  and  France, 
three  years  before;  he  shod  the  farmer's  flails  with  iron,  and 
taught  them  to  crack  helmets  and  armor  with  iron  maces;  and 
he  invented  a  system  of  constructing  temporary  fortresses  by  bind- 
ing strong  wagons  together  with  iron  chains,  Sigismund  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  aware  of  the  formidable  character  of  the 
movement  until  the  end  of  hJs  war  with  the  Turks,  some  months 
afterward,  and  he  then  persuaded  the  Pope  to  summon  all  Chris- 
tendom to  a  crusade  against  Bohemia.  During  the  year  1420  a 
force  of  100,000  soldiers  was  collected,  and  Sigismund  marched  at 
their  head  to  Prague.  The  Hussites  met  him  with  the  demand  for 
the  acceptance  of  the  following  articles:  i.  The  Word  of  God  to 
be  freely  preached;  2.  The  sacrament  to  be  administered  in 
both  forms;  3.  The  clergy  to  possess  no  property  or  tem- 
poral authority ;  4.  All  sins  to  be  punished  by  the  proper  authorities. 
Sigismund  was  ready  to  accept  these  articles  as  the  price  of  their 


208  GERMANY 

1420-1422 

submission,  but  the  Papal  legate  forbade  the  agreement,  and  war 
followed. 

On  November  i,  1420,  the  "crusaders  "  were  totally  defeated 
by  Ziska,  and  all  Bohemia  was  soon  relieved  of  their  presence. 
The  dispute  between  the  moderates  and  the  radicals  broke  out 
again;  the  idea  of  a  community  of  property  began  to  prevail 
among  the  Taborites,  and  most  of  the  Bohemian  nobles  refused 
to  act  with  them.  Ziska  left  Prague  with  his  troops  and  for  a 
time  devoted  himself  to  the  task  of  suppressing  all  opposition 
through  the  country  with  fire  and  sword.  He  burned  no  less  than 
550  convents  and  monasteries,  slaying  the  priests  and  monks  who 
refused  to  accept  the  new  doctrines:  but  he  proceeded  with  equal 
severity  against  a  new  sect  called  the  Adamites,  who  were  endeavor- 
ing to  restore  Paradise  by  living  without  clothes.  While  besieging 
the  town  of  Raby  an  arrow  destroyed  his  remaining  eye;  yet  he 
continued  to  plan  battles  and  sieges  as  before.  The  very  name 
of  the  blind  warrior  became  a  terror  throughout  Germany. 

In  September,  1421,  a  second  crusade  of  200,000  men,  com- 
manded by  five  German  electors,  entered  Bohemia  from  the  west. 
It  had  been  planned  that  the  Emperor  Sigismund,  assisted  by  Duke 
Albert  of  Austria,  to  whom  he  had  given  his  daughter  in  marriage, 
and  who  was  now  also  supported  by  many  of  the  Bohemian  nobles, 
should  invade  the  country  from  the  east  at  exactly  the  same  time. 
The  Hussites  were  thus  to  be  crushed  between  the  upper  and  the 
nether  millstones.  But  the  blind  Ziska,  nothing  daunted,  led  his 
wagons,  his  flail-men,  and  mace-wielders  against  the  electors,  whose 
troops  began  to  flee  before  them.  No  battle  was  fought;  the 
200,000  crusaders  were  scattered  in  all  directions  and  lost  heavily 
during  their  retreat.  Then  Ziska  wheeled  about  and  marched 
against  Sigismund,  who  was  late  in  making  his  appearance.  The 
two  armies  met  on  January  8,  1422,  and  the  Hussite  victory  was 
so  complete  that  the  emperor  narrowly  escaped  falling  into  their 
hands.  It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  that  they  should  consider  them- 
selves to  be  the  chosen  people  of  God  after  such  astonishing 
successes. 

At  this  juncture  Prince  Witold  of  Lithuania,  supported  by 
King  Jagello  of  Poland,  offered  to  accept  the  four  articles  of  the 
Hussites,  provided  they  would  give  him  the  crown  of  Bohemia. 
The  moderates  were  all  in  his  favor,  and  even  Ziska  left  the  Tabor- 
ites when,  true  to  their  republican  principles,  they  refused  to  ac- 


REIGN     OF     SIGISMUND  209 

1422-1430 

cept  Witold's  proposition.  The  separation  between  the  two  parties 
of  the  Hussites  was  now  complete.  Witold  sent  his  nephew, 
Koribut,  who  swore  to  maintain  the  four  articles,  and  was  installed 
at  Prague  as  "  Vicegerent  of  Bohemia."  Thereupon  Sigismund 
made  such  representations  to  King  Jagello  of  Poland  that  Koribut 
was  soon  recalled  by  his  uncle.  About  the  same  time  a  third  cru- 
sade was  arranged,  and  Frederick  of  Brandenburg  (the  Hohen- 
zollern)  selected  to  command  it;  but  the  plan  failed  from  lack  of 
support.  .  The  dissensions  among  the  Hussites  became  fiercer  than 
ever  •  Ziska  was  at  one  time  on  the  point  of  attacking  Prague,  but 
the  leaders  of  the  moderate  party  succeeded  in  coming  to  an  un- 
derstanding with  him,  and  he  entered  the  city  in  triumph.  In 
October,  1425,  while  marching  against  Duke  Albert  of  Austria, 
who  had  invaded  Moravia,  he  fell  a  victim  to  the  plague.  Even 
after  death  he  continued  to  terrify  the  German  soldiers,  who  be- 
lieved that  his  skin  had  been  made  into  a  drum  and  still  called 
the  Hussites  to  battle. 

A  majority  of  the  Taborites  elected  a  priest,  called  Procopius 
the  Great,  as  their  comm.ander  in  Ziska's  stead;  the  others,  who 
thenceforth  styled  themselves  "  Orphans,"  united  under  another 
priest,  Procopius  the  Little.  The  approach  of  another  imperial 
army,  in  1426,  compelled  them  to  forget  their  differences,  and  the 
result  was  a  splendid  victory  over  their  enemies.  Procopius  the 
Great  then  invaded  Austria  and  Silesia,  which  he  laid  waste  without 
mercy.  The  Pope  called  a  fourth  crusade,  which  met  the  same  fate 
as  the  former  ones :  the  united  armies  of  the  Archbishop  of  Treves, 
the  Elector  Frederick  of  Brandenburg,  and  the  Duke  of  Saxony, 
200,000  strong,  were  utterly  defeated  and  fled  in  disorder,  leaving 
an  enormous  quantity  of  stores  and  munitions  of  war  in  the  hands 
of  the  Bohemians. 

Procopius,  who  was  almost  the  equal  of  Ziska  as  a  military 
leader,  made  several  unsuccessful  attempts  to  unite  the  Hussites  in 
one  religious  body.  In  order  to  prevent  their  dissensions  from  be- 
coming dangerous  to  the  common  cause,  he  kept  the  soldiers  of  all 
sects  under  his  command,  and  undertook  fierce  invasions  into  Ba- 
varia, Saxony,  and  Brandenburg,  which  made  the  Hussite  name  a 
terror  to  all  Germany.  During  these  expeditions  one  hundred  towns 
were  destroyed,  more  than  fifteen  hundred  villages  burned,  tens  of 
thousands  of  the  inhabitants  slain,  and  such  quantities  of  plunder 
collected  that  it  was  impossible  to  transport  the  whole  of  it  to  Bd- 


«10  GERMANY 

1430-1433 

hernia.  Frederick  of  Brandenburg  and  several  other  princes  were 
compelled  to  pay  heavy  tributes  to  the  Hussites:  the  empire  was 
thoroughly  humiliated,  the  people  weary  of  slaughter,  yet  the  Pope 
refused  even  to  call  a  council  for  the  discussion  of  the  difficulty. 

As  for  the  Emperor  Sigismund,  he  had  grown  tired  of  the 
quarrel  long  before.  Leaving  the  other  German  states  to  fight 
Bohemia,  he  withdrew  to  Hungary  and  for  some  years  found 
enough  to  do  in  repelling  the  inroads  of  the  Turks.  It  was  not 
until  the  beginning  of  the  year  143 1,  when  there  was  peace  along 
the  Danube,  that  he  took  any  measures  for  putting  an  end  to  the 
Hussite  war.  Pope  Martin  V.  was  dead,  and  his  successor,  Eugene 
IV.,  reluctantly  consented  to  call  a  council  to  meet  at  Basel.  First, 
however,  he  insisted  on  a  fifth  crusade,  which  was  proclaimed  for 
the  complete  extermination  of  the  Hussites.  The  German  princes 
made  a  last  and  desperate  effort:  an  army  of  130,000  men,  40,000 
of  whom  were  cavalry,  was  brought  together,  under  the  command 
of  Frederick  of  Brandenburg,  while  Albert  of  Austria  was  to  sup- 
port it  by  invading  Bohemia  from  the  south. 

Procopius  and  his  dauntless  Hussites  met  the  crusaders  on 
August  14,  143 1,  at  a  place  called  Thauss,  and  won  another  of 
their  marvelous  victories.  The  imperial  army  was  literally  cut  to 
pieces — 8000  wagons,  filled  with  provisions  and  munitions  of  war, 
and  150  cannons  were  left  upon  the  field.  The  Hussites  marched 
northward  to  the  Baltic  and  eastward  into  Hungary,  burning, 
slaying,  and  plundering  as  they  went.  Even  the  Pope  now  yielded, 
and  the  Hussites  were  invited  to  attend  the  council  at  Basel,  with 
the  most  solemn  stipulations  in  regard  to  personal  safety  and  a  fair 
discussion  of  their  demands.  Sigismund  in  the  meantime  had  gone 
to  Italy  and  been  crowned  emperor  in  Rome,  on  condition  of 
showing  himself  publicly  as  a  personal  servant  of  the  Pope.  He 
spent  nearly  two  years  in  Italy,  leading  an  idle  and  immoral  life, 
and  went  back  to  Germany  when  his  money  was  exhausted. 

In  1433,  finally,  three  hundred  Hussites,  headed  by  Procopius, 
appeared  in  Basel.  They  demanded  nothing  more  than  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  four  articles  upon  which  they  had  united  in  1420; 
but  after  seven  weeks  of  talk,  during  which  the  council  agreed  upon 
nothing  and  promised  nothing,  they  marched  away,  after  stating 
that  any  further  negotiation  must  be  carried  on  in  Prague.  This 
course  compelled  the  council  to  act,  an  embassy  was  appointed, 
which  prdcceddd  to  Prague,  and  on  November  30,  the  same  year. 


REIGN     OF     SIGISMUND  211 

1433-1438 

concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Hussites.  The  four  demands  were 
granted,  but  each  with  a  condition  attached  which  gave  the  church 
a  chance  to  regain  its  lost  power.  For  this  reason  the  Taborites 
and  **  Orphans  "  refused  to  accept  the  compact ;  the  moderate  party 
united  with  the  nobles  and  undertook  to  suppress  the  former  by 
force.  A  fierce  internal  war  followed,  but  it  was  of  short  duration. 
In  1434  the  Taborites  were  defeated,  their  fortified  mountain  taken, 
PrOcopius  the  Great  and  the  Little  were  both  slain,  and  the  members 
of  the  sect  dispersed.  The  Bohemian  Reformation  was  never  again 
dangerous  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 

The  Emperor  Sigismund,  after  proclaiming  a  general  amnesty, 
entered  Prague  in  1436.  He  made  some  attempt  to  restore  order 
and  prosperity  to  the  devastated  country,  but  his  measures  in  favor 
of  the  church  provoked  a  conspiracy  against  him,  in  which  his 
second  wife,  the  Empress  Barbara,  was  implicated.  Being  warned 
by  his  son-in-law,  Duke  Albert  of  Austria,  he  left  Prague  for  Hun- 
gary. On  reaching  Znaim,  the  capital  of  Moravia,  he  felt  the  ap- 
proach of  death,  whereupon,  after  naming  Albert  his  successor,  he 
had  himself  clothed  in  his  imperial  robes  and  seated  in  a  chair,  so 
that,  after  a  worthless  life,  he  was  able  to  die  in  great  state,  on 
December  9,  1437.     With  him  expired  the  Luxemburg  dynasty. 


Chapter    XXIII 

THE   FOUNDATION   OF  THE   HAPSBURG   DYNASTY 

1438-1439 

THE  German  electors  seemed  to  be  acting-  contrary  to  their 
usual  policy,  when,  on  March  18,  1438,  they  unani- 
mously voted  for  Albert  of  Austria,  who  became  em- 
peror as  Albert  H.  With  him  begins  the  unbroken  line  of  Haps- 
burg  rulers,  which  kept  sole  possesssion  of  the  imperial  office  until 
Francis  H.  gave  up  the  title  of  emperor  of  Germany,  in  1806.  Al- 
bert n.  was  duke  of  Austria,  and,  as  the  heir  of  Sigismund,  he  was 
also  king  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia ;  consequently  the  power  of  his 
house  was  much  greater  than  that  of  any  other  German  prince ;  but 
the  electors  were  influenced  by  the  consideration  that  his  territories 
lay  mostly  outside  of  Germany  proper,  that  they  were  in  a  condition 
which  would  demand  all  his  time  and  energy,  and  therefore  the 
other  states  and  principalities  would  probably  be  left  to  themselves, 
as  they  had  been  under  Sigismund.  Nothing  is  more  evident  in 
the  history  of  Germany,  from  first  to  last,  than  the  opposition  of  the 
ruling  princes  to  any  close  political  union  of  a  national  character ; 
but  it  was  seldom  so  selfish  and  shamelessly  manifested  as  in  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 

The  events  of  Albert  H.'s  short  reign  are  not  important.  Be- 
fore anything  could  be  accomplished  he  died  in  Hungary,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1439. 

The  electors  again  met,  and  in  February,  1440,  unanimously 
chose  Albert's  cousin,  Frederick  of  Styria  and  Carinthia,  who,  after 
waiting  three  months  before  he  could  make  up  his  mind,  finally 
accepted,  and  was  crowned  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  as  Frederick  HI. 
His  indolence,  eccentricity,  and  pedantic  stiffness  seemed  to  promise 
just  such  a  wooden  figure-head  as  the  princes  required :  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  imagine  any  other  reason  for  the  selection.  He  was  a  loyal 
servant  of  the  Papal  power,  and  his  secretary,  i^neas  Sylvius  (who 
afterward  became  Pope  as  Pius  II.),  influenced  him  wholly  in  the 

919 


HAPSBURG    DYNASTY  213 

1440-1444 

interest  of  the  Church  of  Rome  at  a  time  when  a  majority  of  the 
German  princes,  and  even  many  of  the  bishops,  were  endeavoring  to 
effect  a  reformation. 

The  council  at  Basel  had  not  adjourned  after  concluding  the 
compact  of  Prague  with  the  Hussites.  The  desire  for  a  correction 
of  the  abuses  which  had  so  weakened  the  spiritual  authority  of  the 
church  was  strong  enough  to  compel  the  members  to  discuss  plans 
of  reform.  Their  course  was  so  distasteful  to  Pope  Eugene  IV.  that 
he  threatened  to  excommunicate  the  council,  which,  in  return,  de- 
posed him  and  elected  Amadeus,  Duke  of  Savoy,  who  took  the 
name  of  Pope  Felix  V.  The  prospect  of  a  new  schism  disturbed 
the  Christian  world ;  many  of  the  reigning  princes  refused  to  recog- 
nize Eugene  unless  he  would  grant  entire  freedom  to  Germany  in 
religious  matters,  and  he  would  have  probably  been  obliged  to  yield 
but  for  the  help  extended  to  him  by  Frederick  III.,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  ^neas  Sylvius.  The  latter  succeeded  in  destroying  the  work 
of  reform  in  its  very  beginning.  By  the  Concordat  of  Vienna,  in 
1448,  Frederick  neutralized  the  action  of  the  council  and  restored  the 
Papal  authority  in  its  most  despotic  form.  Felix  V.  was  forced  to 
abdicate,  and  the  council  of  Basel — which  had  meanwhile  adjourned 
to  Lausanne — was  finally  dissolved,  after  a  session  of  seventeen 
years. 

In  his  political  course,  during  this  time,  Frederick  III.  was 
equally  weak  and  unsuccessful.  After  making  a  temporary  ar- 
rangement with  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  he  determined  to  re- 
conquer the  former  Hapsburg  possessions  from  the  Swiss.  A 
quarrel  between  Zurich  and  the  other  cantons  seemed  to  favor  his 
plan;  but  not  being  able  to  obtain  any  troops  in  Germany,  he  ap- 
plied to  Charles  VII.  of  France  for  5000  of  the  latter's  mercenaries. 
As  Charles,  with  the  help  of  Joan  D'Arc,  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  had 
just  victoriously  concluded  his  war  with  England,  he  had  plenty 
of  men  to  spare ;  so,  instead  of  5000,  he  sent  30,000,  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  Dauphin.  This  force  marched  into  Switzerland,  and 
was  met,  on  August  26,  1444,  at  St.  Jacob,  near  Basel,  by  an 
army  of  1600  devoted  Swiss,  every  man  of  whom  fell,  after  a 
battle  which  lasted  ten  hours.  The  French  were  so  crippled  and 
discouraged  that  they  turned  back  and  for  months  afterward  laid 
waste  Baden  and  Alsatia ;  so  that  only  German  territory  suffered  by 
this  transaction. 

The  Suabian  cities,  inspired  by  the  heroic  attitude  of  the  Swiss, 


214 


GERMANY 


1444-1453 

now  made  another  attempt  to  protect  themselves  against  the  en- 
croachment of  the  reigning  princes  upon  their  ancient  rights.  For 
two  years  a  fierce  war  was  waged  between  them  and  the  latter,  who 
were  headed  by  the  Hohenzollern  count,  Albert  Achilles  of  Bran- 
denburg. The  struggle  came  to  an  end  in  1450,  and  so  greatly  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  cities  that  the  people  of  Schaffhausen  an- 
nexed themselves  and  their  territory  to  Switzerland.  The  following 
year,  as  there  was  a  temporary  peace,  Frederick  III.  undertook  a 
journey  to  Italy,  with  an  escort  of  3000  men.  His  object  was  to  be 
crowned  emperor  at  Rome,  and  the  Pope  could  not  refuse  the  re- 


quest of  such  an  obedient  servant,  especially  after  the  latter  had 
kissed  his  foot  and  appeared  publicly  as  his  groom.  He  was  the 
first  German  emperor  who  amused  the  Roman  people  by  playing 
such  a  part.  During  the  year  he  spent  in  Italy  he  avoided  Milan, 
and  made  no  attempt  to  claim,  or  even  to  sell,  any  of  the  former 
imperial  rights. 

Disturbances  in  Hungary  and  Bohemia  hastened  his  return  to 
Germany.  Both  countries  demanded  that  he  should  give  up  the 
boy  Ladislas,  son  of  Albert  II.,  whom  he  still  kept  with  him.  In 
Bohemia  George  Podiebrad,  a  Hussite  nobleman,  was  at  the  head 
of  the  government;  in  Hungary  the  ruler  was  John  Hunyadi,  one 


HAPSBURG    DYNASTY  «15 

1453-1466 

of  the  most  heroic  and  illustrious  characters  in  Hungarian  annals. 
The  emperor  was  compelled  to  give  up  Austria  at  once  to  Ladislas, 
who,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  was  also  chosen  king  of  Hungary  and 
Bohemia.  But  he  died  soon  afterward,  in  1457,  and  then  Matthias 
Corvinus,  the  son  of  Hunyadi,  was  elected  king  by  the  Hungarians, 
and  George  Podiebrad  by  the  Bohemians.  Even  Austria,  which 
Frederick  attempted  to  retain,  passed  partly  into  the  hands  of  his 
brother  Albert,  The  German  princes  looked  on  well  pleased,  and 
saw  the  power  of  the  Hapsburg  house  diminished ;  only  its  old  ally, 
the  House  of  Hohenzollern,  still  exhibited  an  active  friendship  for 
Frederick  HI. 

The  condition  of  the  empire  at  this  time  was  most  deplorable. 
While  France,  England,  and  Spain  were  increasing  their  power  by 
better  political  organization,  Germany  was  weakened  by  an  almost 
unbroken  series  of  internal  wars.  The  340  independent  dukes, 
bishops,  counts,  abbots,  barons,  and  cities  fought  or  made  peace, 
leagued  themselves  together  or  separated,  just  as  they  pleased.  So 
wanton  became  the  spirit  of  destruction  that  Albert  Achilles  of 
Brandenburg  openly  declared :  "  Conflagration  is  the  ornament  of 
war," — and  the  people  described  one  of  his  campaigns  by  saying: 
"  They  can  read  at  night  in  Franconia,"  Frederick  HI.  called  a 
number  of  national  diets,  but  as  he  never  attended  any,  the  smaller 
rulers  soon  followed  his  example.  Although  the  Turks  began  to 
ravage  the  borders  of  Styria  and  Carinthia,  and  carried  away  thou- 
sands of  the  inhabitants  as  slaves,  he  spent  his  time  in  Austria, 
quarreling  with  his  brother  Albert,  and  intriguing  alternately  with 
the  Hungarians  and  Bohemians,  in  the  attempt  to  secure  for  him- 
self the  crowns  worn  by  Matthias  Corvinus  and  George  Podiebrad. 

Along  the  Baltic  shore  the  growth  of  the  German  element  was 
checked  and  almost  destroyed.  After  its  crushing  defeat  at  Tan- 
nenberg  the  Teutonic  Order  not  only  lost  its  power,  but  its  liberal 
and  intelligent  character.  It  began  to  impose  heavy  taxes  on  the 
cities,  and  to  rule  with  greater  harshness  the  population  under  its 
sway.  The  result  was  a  combined  revolt  of  the  cities  and  the 
country  nobility,  who  compelled  the  Order  to  grant  them  a  consti- 
tution, guaranteeing  the  rights  for  which  they  contended.  They 
purchased  Frederick  III.'s  consent  to  this  measure  for  54,000  gold 
florins.  Soon  afterward,  however,  the  Order  paid  the  emperor 
80,000  gold  florins  to  withdraw  his  consent.  Then  the  cities  and 
nobles,  exasperated  at  this  treachery,  rose  again,  and  called  the 


216  GERMANY 

1466-1473 

Poles  to  their  help.  The  Order  appealed  to  the  empire,  but  received 
no  assistance.  It  was  defeated  and  its  territory  overrun;  West 
Prussia  was  annexed  to  Poland,  which  held  it  for  three  centuries 
afterward,  and  East  Prussia,  detached  completely  from  the  empire, 
was  left  as  a  little  German  island  surrounded  by  Slavonic  races. 
By  the  Peace  of  Thorn,  in  1466,  East  Prussia  still  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  Teutonic  knights,  but  they  had  to  pay  homage  to  the 
King  of  Poland  as  feudal  overlord.  The  responsibility  for  this 
serious  loss  to  Germany,  as  well  as  for  the  internal  anarchy  and 
barbarity  which  prevailed,  rests  directly  upon  the  electors  who  se- 
lected Frederick  III.  precisely  because  they  knew  his  character, 
and  who  never  attempted  to  depose  him,  during  his  long  and  miser- 
able reign  of  fifty-three  years. 

Germany  was  also  seriously  threatened  on  the  west,  not  by 
France,  but  by  the  sudden  growth  of  a  new  power  which  was  equally 
dangerous  to  France.  This  was  the  duchy  of  Burgundy,  which 
in  the  course  of  a  hundred  years  had  grown  to  the  dimensions  of 
a  kingdom,  and  was  now  strong  enough  to  throw  off  the  dependency 
of  the  territories  it  embraced,  to  France  on  the  one  side  and  to  the 
German  Empire  on  the  other.  The  foundation  of  its  growth  was 
laid  in  1363,  when  King  John  of  France  made  his  fourth  son, 
called  Philip  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  the  latter,  by  marry- 
ing the  Countess  Margaret  of  Flanders,  extended  his  territory  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Rhine.  His  successors  extended  the  sway  of 
Burgundy,  by  purchase,  inheritance,  or  force  of  arms,  over  all 
Belgium  and  Holland,  so  that  it  then  reached  from  the  Rhine  to 
the  North  Sea.  The  Burgundian  court  was  one  of  the  most  splen- 
did in  Europe,  and  became  the  rival  of  Italy  in  wealth,  architecture, 
and  the  fine  arts. 

In  1467  Charles  the  Bold  became  Duke  of  Burgundy.  He 
was  rash,  vindictive,  and  almost  insanely  ambitious.  The  great 
purpose  of  his  life  seems  to  have  been  to  extend  his  territory  to  the 
Alps  and  the  Mediterranean,  to  gain  possession  of  Lorraine  and 
Alsatia,  and  thus  to  found  a  kingdom  of  Burgundy,  almost  corre- 
sponding to  that  given  to  Lothar  by  the  Treaty  of  Verdun,  in  843. 
He  first  acquired  additional  territory  in  Belgium,  then  took  a  mort- 
gage on  all  the  possessions  of  the  Hapsburgs  in  Alsatia  and  Baden 
by  making  a  loan  to  Sigismund  of  Tyrol.  Frederick  III.  not  only 
permitted  these  transactions,  but  met  Charles  at  Treves  in  1473 
to  arrange  a  marriage  between  the  latter.'s  only  daughter,  Mary  of 


CHARLES  THE   BOLD 

(Born    1433.     Died    1690) 

Painting  by  Roger  Van  der  Weyden 

Berlin   Museum 


HAPSBURG    DYNASTY  ^17 

1473-1476 

Burgundy,  and  his  own  son,  Maximilian.  During  the  visit,  which 
lasted  two  months,  Charles  the  Bold  displayed  so  much  pomp  and 
splendor  that  the  emperor,  unable  to  make  an  equal  show,  finally 
left  without  saying  good-by.  The  interests  of  Germany  did  not 
move  him,  but  when  his  personal  vanity  was  touched  he  was  capable 
of  action. 

For  a  short  time  Frederick  exhibited  a  little  energy  and  intelli- 
gence. In  order  to  secure  the  alliance  of  the  Swiss,  who  were 
equally  threatened  by  the  designs  of  Charles  the  Bold,  he  concluded 
the  Perpetual  Peace  with  them,  relinquishing  forever  the  claims  of 
the  House  of  Hapsburg  to  authority  over  any  part  of  their  terri- 
tory. The  cities  of  Alsatia  and  Baden  advanced  money  to  Sigis- 
mund  of  Tyrol  to  pay  his  debt,  and  when  Charles  the  Bold  never- 
theless refused  to  give  up  Alsatia  and  part  of  Lorraine,  which  he 
had  seized  in  the  meantime,  war  was  declared  against  him.  Louis 
XL  of  France,  equally  jealous  of  Burgundy,  favored  the  movement, 
but  took  no  active  part  in  it.  Although  Charles  was  driven  out  of 
Alsatia  and  failed  to  take  the  city  of  Neuss  after  a  siege  of  ten 
months,  he  succeeded  in  negotiating  a  peace  by  offering  a  truce  of 
nine  years  to  Louis  XL  and  promising  his  daughter's  hand  to 
Frederick's  son,  Maximilian.  In  this  treaty  the  emperor,  who  had 
persuaded  Switzerland  and  Lorraine  to  become  his  allies,  infamously 
gave  them  up  to  Charles  the  Bold's  revenge. 

The  latter  instantly  seized  the  whole  of  Lorraine,  transferred 
his  capital  from  Brussels  to  Nancy,  and,  considering  his  future 
kingdom  secured,  prepared  first  to  punish  the  Swiss.  He  collected 
a  magnificent  army  of  50,000  men,  crossed  the  Jura,  and  appeared 
before  the  town  of  Granson,  on  the  Lake  of  Neufchatel.  The  place 
surrendered  on  condition  that  the  citizens  should  be  allowed  to 
leave  unharmed;  but  Charles  seized  them,  hanged  a  number,  and 
threw  the  rest  into  the  lake.  By  this  time  the  Swiss  army,  number- 
ing 18,000,  appeared  before  Granson.  Before  beginning  the  battle 
they  fell  upon  their  knees  and  prayed  fervently ;  whereupon  Charles 
cried  out :  "  See,  they  are  begging  for  mercy,  but  none  of  them  shall 
escape !  "  For  several  hours  the  fight  raged  fiercely ;  then  the  horns 
of  the  mountaineers — the  "bulls  of  Uri  and  the  cows  of  Unter- 
walden,"  as  the  Swiss  called  them — were  heard  in  the.  distance,  as 
they  hastened  to  join  their  brethren.  A  panic  seized  the  Burgun- 
dians,  and  after  a  short  and  desperate  struggle  they  fled,  leaving  all 
their  camp  equipage,  420  cannon,  and  such  enormous  treasures 


218  GERMANY 

1476-1485 

in  the  hands  of  the  Swiss  that  the  soldiers  divided  the  money  by 
hatfuls. 

This  splendid  victory  occurred  on  May  3,  1476.  Charles 
made  every  effort  to  retrieve  his  fortunes.  He  called  fresh  troops 
into  the  field,  reorganized  his  army,  and  on  June  22  again  met 
the  Swiss  near  the  little  town  and  lake  of  Morat.  The  battle 
fought  there  resulted  in  a  more  crushing  defeat  than  that  of  Gran- 
son:  15,000  Burgimdians  were  left  dead  upon  the  field.  The  aid 
which  the  Swiss  had  begged  the  German  Empire  to  give  them  had 
not  been  granted,  but  it  was  not  needed.  Charles  the  Bold  seems 
to  have  become  partially  insane  after  this  overthrow  of  his  ambitious 
plans.  He  refused  the  proffered  mediation  of  Frederick  HI.  and 
the  Pope,  and  endeavored  to  resume  the  war.  In  the  meantime 
Duke  Rene  of  Lorraine  had  recovered  his  land,  and  when  Charles 
marched  to  retake  Nancy  the  Swiss  allied  themselves  with  the 
former.  A  final  battle  was  fought  before  the  walls  of  Nancy  in 
January,  1477.  After  the  defeat  and  flight  of  the  Burgundians  the 
body  of  Charles  was  found  on  the  field,  so  covered  with  blood  and 
mud  as  scarcely  to  be  recognized. 

Up  to  this  time  the  German  Empire  had  always  claimed  that 
its  jurisdiction  extended  over  Switzerland,  but  henceforth  no  effort 
was  ever  made  to  enforce  it.  The  little  communities  of  free  people 
who  had  defied  and  humiliated  Austria,  and  now,  within  a  few 
months,  crushed  the  splendid  and  haughty  House  of  Burgimdy, 
were  left  alone,  an  eyesore  to  the  neighboring  princes,  but  a  hope 
to  their  people.  The  Hapsburg  dynasty,  nevertheless,  profited  by 
the  fall  of  Charles  the  Bold.  Mary  of  Burgundy  gave  her  hand  to 
Maximilian  in  1477,  and  he  established  his  court  in  Flanders.  He 
was  both  handsome  and  intellectually  endowed,  and  was  reputed  to 
be  the  most  accomplished  knight  of  his  day.  Louis  XI.  of  France 
attempted  to  gain  possession  of  those  provinces  of  Burgimdy  which 
had  French  population,  but  was  signally  defeated  by  Maximilian 
in  1479.  Three  years  afterward,  however,  when  Mary  of  Burgundy 
was  killed  by  a  fall  from  her  horse,  the  cities  of  Bruges  and  .Ghent, 
instigated  by  France,  claimed  the  guardianship  of  her  two  children, 
Philip  and  Margaret,  the  latter  of  whom  was  sent  to  Paris  to  be 
educated  as  the  bride  of  the  Dauphin.  A  war  ensued  which  lasted 
until  1485,  when  Maximilian  was  reluctantly  accepted  as  regent  of 
Flanders. 

While  these  events  were  taking  place,  Frederick  III.  was  in- 


ENTRY    OF    THE    CROWN    PRINCE    MAXIMILIAN    OF    CKRMANY    INTO    GHENT 

TO   ESPOUSE   MARY  OF  BURGUNDY 

Painting  by  A.  Schramm 


HAPSBURG    DYNASTY  «19 

1485-1491 

volved  in  a  quarrel  with  Matthias  Corvinus,  King  of  Hungary, 
who  easily  succeeded  in  driving  him  from  Vienna  and  then  from 
Austria.  Still  the  German  princes  looked  carelessly  on,  and  the 
weak  old  emperor  wandered  from  one  to  the  other,  everywhere 
received  as  an  unwelcome  guest.  In  i486  he  called  a  diet  at  Frank- 
fort, and  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  procure  a  union  of  the  forces 
of  the  empire  against  Hungary.  All  that  was  accomplished  was 
Maximilian's  election  as  King  of  Germany.  Immediately  after 
being  crowned  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  he  made  a  formal  demand  on 
Matthias  Corvinus  for  the  surrender  of  Austria.  Before  any  fur- 
ther steps  could  be  taken  he  was  recalled  to  Flanders  by  a  new 
rebellion,  which  lasted  for  three  years. 

Frederick  III.,  deserted  on  all  sides,  and  seeing  the  Hapsburg 
possessions  along  the  frontiers  of  Austria  and  Tyrol  threatened  by 
Bavaria,  finally  appealed  to  the  Suabian  cities  for  help.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  a  new  Suabian  League,  which  was  composed 
of  twenty-two  free  cities,  the  Count  of  Wiirtemberg,  and  a  number 
of  independent  nobles.  A  force  was  raised,  with  which  he  first 
marched  to  the  relief  of  Maximilian,  who  had  been  taken  and 
imprisoned  at  Bruges  and  was  threatened  with  death.  The  under- 
taking was  successful.  Maximilian  was  released,  and  in  1489  his 
authority  was  established  over  all  the  Netherlands. 

The  next  step  was  to  rescue  Austria  from  the  Hungarians. 
An  interview  between  Frederick  III.  and  Matthias  Corvinus  was 
arranged,  but  before  it  could  take  place  the  latter  died,  in  April, 
1490.  Maximilian,  with  the  troops  of  the  Suabian  League,  retook 
Vienna,  and  even  advanced  into  Hungary,  the  crown  of  which 
country  he  claimed  for  himself,  but  was  forced  to  conclude  peace  at 
Presburg  the  following  year,  without  obtaining  it.  Austria,  how- 
ever, was  completely  restored  to  the  House  of  Hapsburg. 

Before  the  year  1491  came  to  an  end  Maximilian  suffered  a 
new  humiliation.  The  last  Duke  of  Brittany  (in  western  France) 
had  died,  leaving,  like  Charles  the  Bold  of  Burgundy,  a  single 
daughter,  Anna,  as  his  only  heir.  Maximilian,  who  had  been  a 
widower  since  1482,  applied  for  her  hand,  which  she  promised  to 
him :  the  marriage  ceremony  was  even  performed  by  proxy.  But 
Charles  VIII.  of  France,  although  betrothed  to  Maximilian's  young 
daughter,  Margaret,  now  fourteen  years  old,  saw  in  this  new  alli- 
ance a  great  danger  for  his  kingdom ;  so  he  prevented  Anna  from 
leaving  Brittany,  married  her  himself,  and  sent  Margaret  home  to 


ftStO  GERMANY 

1491-1493 

Austria.  Maximilian  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Henry  VII.  of 
England,  secured  the  support  of  the  Suabian  League,  and  made 
war  upon  France.  The  Netherlands,  nevertheless,  refused  to  aid 
him;  whereupon  Henry  VII.  withdrew  from  the  alliance,  and  the 
matter  was  settled  by  a  treaty  of  peace  in  1493,  which  left  the  duchy 
of  Burgundy  in  the  hands  of  France. 

Frederick  III.  had  already  given  up  the  government  of  Ger- 
many (that  is,  what  little  he  exercised)  to  his  son.  He  settled  at 
Linz  and  devoted  his  days  to  religion  and  alchemy.  He  had  a 
habit  of  thrusting  back  his  right  foot  and  closing  the  doors  behind 
him  with  it;  but  one  day,  kicking  out  too  violently,  he  so  injured 
his  leg  that  the  physicians  were  obliged  to  amputate  it.  This  acci- 
dent hastened  his  death,  which  took  place  in  August,  1493.  He  was 
seventy-eight  years  old,  and  had  reigned  fifty-three  years,  wretch- 
edly enough — but  of  this  fact  he  was  not  aware.  He  evidently 
considered  himself  a  great  and  successful  monarch.  All  his  books 
were  stamped  with  the  vowels,  A.  E.  I.  O.  U. — which  was  a  mys- 
tery to  everyone,  until  the  meaning  was  discovered  after  his  death. 
The  letters  are  the  initials  of  the  words,  "  Alles  Erdreich  1st  Oester- 
reich  Unterthan  " — "  All  earth  is  subject  to  Austria." 

Two  events  occurred  during  Frederick's  reign,  one  of  which 
illustrated  the  declining  influence  of  the  Roman  Church,  while  the 
other,  unnoticed  in  the  confusion  of  civil  war,  was  destined  to  be 
the  chief  weapon  for  the  overthrow  of  the  priestly  power.  The 
first  of  these  was  the  fall  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  when  Sultan 
Mohammed  II.  conquered  Constantinople  in  1453. 

The  other  event  was  a  simple  invention,  which  is  chiefly  remark- 
able for  not  having  been  made  long  before.  The  great  use  of 
cards  for  gambling  first  led  to  the  employment  of  wooden  blocks, 
upon  which  the  figures  were  cut  and  then  printed  in  colors.  Wood 
engraving  of  a  rude  kind  gradually  came  into  use,  and  as  early  as 
the  year  1420  Lawrence  Coster,  of  Harlem,  in  Holland,  produced 
entire  books,  each  page  of  which  was  engraved  upon  a  single  block. 
But  John  Gutenberg,  of  Mayence,  about  the  year  1436,  originated 
the  plan  of  casting  movable  types  and  setting  them  together  to 
form  words.  His  chief  difficulty  was  in  discovering  a  proper  metal 
of  which  to  cast  them  and  a  kind  of  ink  which  would  give  a  clear 
impression.  Paper  made  of  linen  had  already  been  in  use  in  Ger- 
many for  about  130  years. 


HAPSBURG    DYNASTY  221 

1493 

Gutenberg  was  poor,  and  therefore  took  a  man  named  Fust, 
who  had  considerable  means,  as  his  partner.  They  completed  the 
first  printing-press  in  1440,  but  several  more  years  elapsed  before 
the  invention  achieved  any  result.  Finally  there  was  a  quarrel  be- 
tween the  two.  There  is  a  record  of  a  lawsuit  in  1455,  ^^^t  suing 
for  the  recovery  of  the  various  sums  he  had  advanced  from  time  to 
time  to  be  used  in  aiding  the  progress  of  the  invention,  for  making 
tools,  and  for  vellum,  paper,  and  ink.  Fust  won  the  suit,  Guten- 
berg withdrew,  and  Fust  took  his  own  assistant,  Peter  Schoeffer, 
as  partner  in  the  former's  place,  and  continued  the  business. 
Schoeffer  discovered  the  right  combination  of  metal  for  the  types, 
as  well  as  an  excellent  ink.  Gutenberg  soon  set  up  another  office, 
which  he  is  said  to  have  directed  until  his  death  in  1468.  It  is 
difficult,  however,  to  specify  the  books  which  were  printed  by 
Gutenberg,  as  he  made  no  effort  to  assert  any  claim  to  his  inven- 
tion. Gutenberg's  process  has,  of  course,  been  much  improved,  but 
the  fundamental  principles  of  his  typemaking  and  that  of  the 
present  day  are  practically  the  same. 

In  1457  appeared  the  first  printed  book,  a  Latin  psalter; 
in  1 46 1  the  Latin  Bible,  and  two  years  afterward  a  German 
Bible.  These  Bibles  are  masterpieces  of  the  printer's  art:  they 
were  sold  at  from  thirty  to  sixty  gold  florins  a  copy,  which  was  one- 
tenth  the  cost  of  a  manuscript  Bible  at  that  time.  The  art  was  at 
first  kept  a  profound  secret,  and  the  people  supposed  that  the  books 
were  produced  by  magic,  as  they  were  multiplied  so  rapidly  and 
sold  so  cheaply ;  but  when  Mayence  was  taken  by  Adolf  of  Nassau, 
in  1462,  during  one  of  the  civil  wars,  the  invention  became  known 
to  the  world,  and  printing-presses  were  soon  established  in  Holland, 
Italy,  and  England. 

The  rapid  growth  of  this  art,  by  multiplying  books  and 
pamphlets,  opened  the  world  of  letters  to  the  people.  They  were 
now  equal  to  the  nobles  and  the  churchmen,  and  the  civil 
classes  in  the  cities  soon  came  to  be  a  power  in  the  land.  The 
clergy,  and  especially  the  monks,  would  have  suppressed  the  art 
if  they  had  been  able.  It  took  away  from  the  latter  the  profitable 
business  of  copying  manuscript  works,  and  it  placed  within  the 
reach  of  the  people  the  knowledge  of  which  the  former  had  pre- 
served the  monopoly.  Germany,  more  than  any  other  country  in 
Europe,  was  aroused  to  the  greatest  heights  of  intellectual  activity. 


GERMANY 

From  the  time  of  Gutenberg  dates  the  development  of  the  revolt 
against  the  authority  of  the  nobles  and  of  the  church.  By  the 
simple  invention  of  movable  types  the  darkness  of  centuries  began 
to  recede  from  the  world;  a  mighty  and  irresistible  change  was 
sweeping  over  the  minds  and  habits  of  men.  But  the  rulers  of  that 
day,  great  or  little,  were  the  last  persons  to  suspect  that  any  such 
change  was  taking  place. 


PART  III 
PERIOD  OF  REFORMATION.    1493-1701 


Chapter    XXIV 

THE  REIGN  OF  MAXIMILIAN  I.     1498-15 19 

y4  S  Maximilian  had  been  elected  in  i486,  he  began  to  exer- 
L\  cise  the  full  imperial  power,  without  any  further  formali- 
X  JL  ties,  after  his  father's  death.  For  the  first  time  since  the 
death  of  Henry  VII.,  in  13 13,  the  Germans  had  a  popular  emperor. 
They  were  at  last  weary  of  the  prevailing  disorder  and  insecurity, 
and  partly  conscious  that  the  power  of  the  empire  had  declined, 
while  that  of  France,  Spain,  and  even  Poland  had  greatly  increased. 
Therefore  they  brought  themselves  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  an 
emperor  who  was  in  every  respect  stronger  than  any  of  the  electors 
by  whom  he  had  been  chosen. 

Maximilian  had  all  the  qualities  of  a  great  ruler  except  pru- 
dence and  foresight.  He  was  tall,  finely-formed,  with  remarkably 
handsome  features,  clear  blue  eyes,  and  blond  hair  falling  in  ring- 
lets upon  his  shoulders;  he  possessed  great  muscular  strength,  his 
body  was  developed  by  constant  exercise,  and  he  was  one  of  the 
boldest,  bravest,  and  most  skillful  knights  of  his  day.  While  his 
bearing  was  stately  and  dignified,  his  habits  were  simple.  He 
often  marched  on  foot,  carrying  his  lance,  at  the  head  of  his  troops, 
and  was  able  to  forge  his  armor  and  temper  his  sword,  as  well  as 
wear  them.  Yet  he  was  also  well  educated,  possessed  a  taste  for 
literature  and  the  arts,  and  became  something  of  a  poet  in  his  later 
years.  Unlike  his  avaricious  predecessors,  he  was  generous  even  to 
prodigality;  but,  inheriting  his  father's  eccentricity  of  character, 
he  was  whimsical,  very  liable  to  act  from  impulse  instead  of  re- 
flection, and  was  headstrong  and  impatient.  If  he  had  been  as 
wise  as  he  was  honest  and  well-meaning,  he  might  have  regener- 
ated Germany. 

The  commencement  of  his  reign  was  signalized  by  two  threat- 
ening events.  The  Turks  were  renewing  their  invasions  and  boldly 
advancing  into  Carinthia,  between  Vienna  and  the  Adriatic ;  Charles 
.  VIII.  of  France  had  made  himself  master  of  Naples    and  was 

9i6 


£t6  GERMANY 

1495-1496 

apparently  bent  on  conquering  and  annexing  all  of  Italy.  Max- 
imilian had  just  married  Blanca  Maria  Sforza,  niece  of  the  reign- 
ing Duke  of  Milan,  which  city,  with  others  in  Lombardy,  and  even 
the  Pope — forgetting  their  old  enmity  to  the  German  Empire — 
demanded  his  assistance.  He  called  a  diet,  which  met  at  Worms 
in  1495 ;  but  many  of  the  princes,  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  had 
learned  a  little  wisdom,  and  they  were  unwilling  to  interfere  in 
matters  outside  of  the  empire  until  something  had  been  done  to 
remedy  its  internal  condition.  Berthold,  Archbishop  of  Mayence, 
Frederick  the  Wise  of  Saxony,  John  Cicero  of  Brandenburg,  and 
Eberhard  of  the  Beard,  first  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg,  with  many  of 
the  free  cities,  insisted  so  strongly  on  the  restoration  of  order, 
security,  and  the  establishment  of  laws  which  should  guarantee 
peace,  that  the  emperor  was  forced  to  comply.  For  fourteen  weeks 
the  question  was  discussed  with  the  greatest  earnestness :  the  oppo- 
sition of  many  princes  and  nearly  all  the  nobles  was  overcome,  and 
the  Perpetual  National  Peace  (Landfrieden)  was  proclaimed.  By 
this  measure  the  right  to  use  force  was  prohibited  to  all ;  the  feuds 
which  had  desolated  the  land  for  a  thousand  years  were  ordered  to 
be  suppressed;  and  all  disputes  were  referred  to  an  imperial  court, 
permanently  established  at  Frankfort  and  composed  of  sixteen 
councilors.  It  was  also  agreed  that  the  diet  should  meet  annually, 
and  remain  in  session  for  one  month,  in  order  to  insure  the  uninter- 
rupted enforcement  of  its  decrees,  A  proposition  to  appoint  an 
imperial  council  of  state  of  twenty  members,  which  should  have 
power,  in  certain  cases,  to  act  in  the  emperor's  name,  was  rejected 
by  Maximilian,  as  an  assault  upon  his  personal  rights. 

Although  the  decree  of  Perpetual  Peace  could  not  be  carried 
into  effect  immediately,  it  was  not  a  dead  letter,  as  all  former  decrees 
of  the  kind  had  been.  Maximilian  bound  himself,  in  the  most 
solemn  manner,  to  respect  the  new  arrangements,  and  there  were 
now  several  honest  and  intelligent  princes  to  assist  him.  One 
difficulty  was  the  collection  of  a  government  tax,  called  "  the  com- 
mon penny,"  to  support  the  expenses  of  the  imperial  court.  Such 
a  tax  had  been  for  the  first  time  imposed  during  the  war  with  the 
Hussites,  but  very  little  of  it  was  then  paid.  Even  now,  when  the 
object  of  it  was  of  such  importance  to  the  whole  people,  several 
years  elapsed  before  the  court  could  be  permanently  established. 
The  annual  sessions  of  the  diet,  also,  were  much  less  effective  than 
had  been  anticipated.     Princes,  priests,  and  cities  were  so  accus- 


MAXIMILIAN    I 

(Born    1459.     r)ied    1519) 

Painting   by   Ambrogio   de   Predis 

Imperial  Gallery   of  Paintings,    Vienna 


REIGN     OF     MAXIMILIAN  2«7 

1496-1508 

tomed  to  selfish  indq)endence  that  they  could  not  yet  work  together 
for  the  general  good. 

Before  the  diet  at  Worms  adjourned  it  agreed  to  furnish  the 
emperor  with  9000  men,  to  be  employed  in  Italy  against  the  French 
and  afterward  against  the  Turks  on  the  Austrian  frontier.  Charles 
VIII.  retreated  from  Italy  on  hearing  of  this  measure,  yet  not 
rapidly  enough  to  avoid  being  defeated,  near  Parma,  by  the  com- 
bined Germans  and  Milanese.  In  1496  Sigismund  of  Tyrol  died, 
and  all  the  Hapsburg  lands  came  into  Maximilian's  possession. 
The  same  year  he  married  his  son  Philip,  then  eighteen  years  old, 
and  accepted  as  regent  by  the  Netherlands,  to  Joanna,  the  daughter 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Castile.  The  other  heirs  to  the  Span- 
ish throne  died  soon  afterward,  and  when  Isabella  followed  them, 
in  1504,  she  appointed  Philip  and  Joanna  her  successors.  The 
pride  and  influence  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg  were  greatly  in- 
creased by  this  marriage,  but  its  consequences  were  most  disastrous 
to  Germany. 

The  next  years  of  Maximilian's  reigti  were  disturbed,  and,  on 
the  whole,  unfortunate  for  the  empire.  An  attempt  to  apply  the 
decrees  of  the  Diet  of  Worms  to  Switzerland  brought  on  a  war, 
which,  after  occasioning  the  destruction  of  2000  villages  and  castles 
and  the  loss  of  20,000  lives,  resulted  in  the  emperor  formally  ac- 
knowledging the  independence  of  Switzerland  in  a  treaty  concluded 
at  Basel  in  1499.  Then  Louis  XII.  of  France  captured  Milan, 
interfered  secretly  in  a  war  concerning  the  succession,  which  broke 
out  in  Bavaria,  and  bribed  various  German  princes  to  act  in  his 
interest,  when  Maximilian  called  upon  the  diet  to  assist  him  in 
making  war  upon  France.  After  having  with  much  difficulty  ob- 
tained 12,000  men,  the  emperor  marched  to  Italy,  intending  to 
replace  the  Sforza  family  in  Milan  and  then  be  crowned  by  Pope 
Julius  II.  in  Rome.  But  the  Venetians  stopped  him  at  the  outset 
of  the  expedition,  and  he  was  forced  to  return  ingloriously  to 
Germany. 

Maximilian's  next  step  was  another  example  of  his  want  of 
judgment  in  political  matters.  In  order  to  revenge  himself  upon 
Venice,  he  gave  up  his  hostility  to  France,  and  in  1508  became  a 
party  to  the  League  of  Cambray,  uniting  with  France,  Spain,  and 
the  Pope  in  a  determined  effort  to  destroy  the  Venetian  republic. 
The  war,  which  was  bloody  and  barbarous,  even  for  those  times, 
lasted  three  years.     Venice  lost,  at  the  outset,  Trieste,  Verona, 


228  GERMANY 

1506-1512 

Padua,  and  the  Romagna,  and  seemed  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  when 
Maximilian  suddenly  left  Italy  with  his  army,  offended,  it  is  said, 
at  the  refusal  of  the  French  knights  to  fight  side  by  side  with  his 
German  troops.  The  Venetians  then  recovered  so  much  of  their 
lost  ground  that  they  secured  the  alliance  of  the  Pope,  and  finally 
of  Spain. 

A  new  alliance,  called  "  the  Holy  Leagfue,"  was  now  formed 
against  France ;  and  Maximilian,  after  continuing  to  support  Louis 
XII.  a  while  longer,  finally  united  with  Henry  VII.  of  England  in 
joining  it.  But  Louis  XII.,  who  was  a  far  better  diplomatist  than 
any  of  his  enemies,  succeeded,  after  he  had  suffered  many  inevitable 
losses,  in  dissolving  this  powerful  combination.  He  married  the 
sister  of  Henry  of  England,  yielded  Navarre  and  Naples  to  Spain, 
promised  money  to  the  Swiss,  and  held  out  to  Maximilian  the  pros- 
pect of  a  marriage  which  would  give  Milan  to  the  Hapsburgs. 

Thus  the  greater  part  of  Europe  was  for  years  convulsed  with 
war  chiefly  because  instead  of  a  prudent  and  intelligent  national 
power  in  Germany  there  was  an  unsteady  and  excitable  family 
leader,  whose  first  interest  was  the  advantage  of  his  house.  After 
such  sacrifices  of  blood  and  treasure,  such  disturbance  to  the  devel- 
opment of  industry,  art,  and  knowledge  among  the  people,  the  same 
confusion  prevailed  as  before. 

Before  the  war  came  to  an  end  another  general  diet  met  at 
Cologne,  in  15 12,  to  complete  the  organization  commenced  in  1495. 
Private  feuds  and  acts  of  retaliation  had  not  yet  been  suppressed, 
and  the  imperial  council  was  working  under  great  disadvantages, 
both  from  the  want  of  money  and  the  difficulty  of  enforcing  obedi- 
ence to  its  decisions.  The  emperor  demanded  the  creation  of  a 
permanent  military  force,  which  should  be  at  the  service  of  the 
empire;  but  this  was  almost  unanimously  refused.  In  other  re- 
spects the  diet  showed  itself  both  willing  and  earnest  to  complete 
the  work  of  peace  and  order.  The  whole  empire  was  divided  into 
ten  administrative  districts  (or  "Circles"),  each  of  which  was 
placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  a  judicial  chief  and  board  of  coun- 
cilors, whose  duty  it  was  to  see  that  the  decrees  of  the  diet  and  the 
judgments  of  the  imperial  court  were  obeyed. 

This  division  of  Germany  into  districts  had  the  external  ap- 
pearance of  an  orderly  political  arrangement ;  but  the  states,  great 
and  little,  had  been  too  long  accustomed  to  having  their  own  way. 
The  fact  that  an  independent  baron,  like  Franz  von  Sickingen,  could 


REIGN     OF     MAXIMILIAN 


229 


1512-1514 

still  disturb  a  large  extent  of  territory  for  a  number  of  years,  shows 
the  weakness  of  the  new  national  power.  Moreover,  nothing-  seems 
to  have  been  done,  or  even  attempted,  by  the  diet  to  protect  the 
agricultural  population  from  the  absolute  despotism  of  the  landed 
nobility.  In  Alsatia,  as  early  as  1493,  there  was  a  general  revolt 
of  the  peasants.  Their  banner  bore  a  peasant's  shoe,  and  their 
league  was  known  therefore  as  the  "  Bundschuh."  The  rising  was 
suppressed,  but  not  until  much  blood  had  been  shed.  It  excited  a 
spirit  of  resistance  throughout  all  southern  Germany.  In  15 14 
Duke  Ulric  of  Wiirtemberg  undertook  to  replenish  his  treasury  by 
using  false  weights  and  measures,  and  provoked  the  common  people 
to  rise  against  him.  They  formed  a  society,  to  which  they  gave 
the  name  of  "  Poor  Konrad,"  which  became  so  threatening  that, 
although  it  was  finally  crushed  by  violence,  it  compelled  the  reform 
of  many  flagrant  evils  and  showed  even  the  most  arrogant  rulers 
that  there  were  bounds  to  tyranny. 

But  although  the  feudal  system  was  still  in  force,  the  obliga- 
tion to  render  military  service  formerly  belonging  to  it  was  nearly 
at  an  end.  The  use  of  cannon  and  of  a  rude  kind  of  musket  had 
become  general  in  war ;  heavy  armor  for  man  and  horse  was  becom- 
ing not  only  useless,  but  dangerous ;  and  the  courage  of  the  soldier, 
not  his  bodily  strength  or  his  knightly  accomplishments,  constituted 
his  value  in  the  field.  The  Swiss  had  set  the  example  of  furnish- 
ing good  troops  to  whoever  would  pay  for  them,  and  a  similar  class, 
calling  themselves  Landsknechte  (servants  of  the  country),  arose 
in  Germany.  The  robber  knights  by  this  time  were  nearly  extinct : 
when  Frederick  of  Hohenzollern  began  to  use  artillery  against 
their  castles  it  was  evident  that  their  days  of  plunder  were  over. 
The  reign  of  Maximilian,  therefore,  marks  an  important  turning- 
point  in  German  history.  It  is,  at  the  same  time,  the  end  of  the 
stormy  and  struggling  life  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  beginning 
of  a  new  and  fiercer  struggle  between  men  and  their  oppressors. 
Maximilian,  in  fact,  is  called  in  Germany  "  the  Last  of  the  Knights." 

The  strength  of  Germany  lay  chiefly  in  the  cities,  which,  in 
spite  of  the  narrow  policy  toward  the  country,  and  their  jealousy 
of  each  other,  had  at  least  kept  alive  and  encouraged  all  forms  of 
art  and  industry,  and  created  a  class  of  learned  men  outside  of  the 
church.  While  the  knighthood  of  the  Hohenstaufen  period  had 
sunk  into  corruption  and  semi-barbarism,  and  the  people  had  grown 
more  dangerous  through  their  ignorance  and  subjection,  the  cities 


t80  GERMANY 

1514 

had  gradually  become  centers  of  wealth  and  intelligence.  They 
were  adorned  with  splendid  works  of  architecture;  they  supported 
the  early  poets,  painters,  and  sculptors ;  and,  when  compelled  to  act 
in  concert  against  the  usurpations  of  the  emperor  or  the  inferior 
nilers,  whatever  privileges  they  maintained  or  received  were  in 
favor  of  the  middle-class,  and  therefore  an  indirect  gain  to  the 
whole  people. 

The  cities,  moreover,  exercised  an  influence  over  the  country 
population  by  their  markets,  fairs,  and  festivals.  The  most  of 
them  were  as  large  and  as  handsomely  built  as  at  present,  but  in 
times  of  peace  the  life  within  their  walls  was  much  gayer  and  more 
brilliant.  Pope  Pius  II.,  when  he  was  secretary  to  Frederick  III. 
as  .<^neas  Sylvius,  wrote  of  them  as  follows :  "  One  may  veritably 
say  that  no  people  in  Europe  live  in  cleaner  or  more  cheerful  cities 
than  the  Germans;  their  appearance  is  as  new  as  if  they  had  only 
been  built  yesterday.  By  their  commerce  they  amass  great  wealth : 
there  is  no  banquet  at  which  they  do  not  drink  from  silver  cups,  no 
dame  who  does  not  wear  golden  ornaments.  Moreover,  the  citizens 
are  also  soldiers,  and  each  one  has  a  sort  of  arsenal  in  his  own  house. 
The  boys  in  this  country  can  ride  before  they  can  talk,  and  sit  firmly 
in  the  saddle  when  the  horses  are  at  full  speed:  the  men  move  in 
their  armor  without  feeling  its  weight.  Verily,  you  Germans  might 
be  masters  of  the  world,  as  formerly,  but  for  your  multitude  of 
rulers,  which  every  wise  man  has  always  considered  an  evil ! " 

During  the  fifteenth  century  a  remarkable  institution,  called 
"  the  Vehm  " — or,  by  the  people,  "  the  Holy  Vehm  " — exercised  a 
g^eat  authority  throughout  northern  Germany.  Its  members 
claimed  that  it  was  founded  by  Charlemagne  to  assist  in  establish- 
ing Christianity  among  the  Saxons ;  but  it  is  not  mentioned  before 
the  twelfth  century,  and  the  probability  is  that  it  sprang  up  from  the 
effort  of  the  people  to  preserve  their  old  democratic  organization 
in  a  secret  form,  after  it  had  been  overthrown  by  the  reigning 
princes.  The  object  of  the  Vehm  was  to  enforce  impartial  justice 
among  all  classes,  and  for  this  purpose  it  held  open  courts  for  the 
settlement  of  quarrels  and  minor  offenses,  while  graver  crimes  were 
tried  at  night,  in  places  known  only  to  the  members.  The  latter 
were  sworn  to  secrecy,  and  also  to  implicit  obedience  to  the  judg- 
ments of  the  courts  or  the  orders  of  the  chiefs,  who  were  called 
"  Free  Counts."  The  headquarters  of  the  Vehm  were  in  West- 
phalia, but  its  branches  spread  over  a  great  part  of  Germany,  and 


REIGN     OF    MAXIMILIAN 


ftSl 


1514-1518 

it  became  so  powerful  during  the  reign  of  Frederick  III.  that  it 
even  dared  to  cite  him  to  appear  before  its  tribunal. 

In  all  probability  the  dread  of  the  power  of  the  Vehm  was  one 
of  the  causes  which  induced  both  Maximilian  and  the  princes  to 
reorganize  the  empire.  In  proportion  as  order  and  justice  began 
to  prevail  in  Germany,  the  need  of  such  a  secret  institution  grew 
less;  but  about  another  century  elapsed  before  its  courts  ceased  to 
be  held.  After  that  it  continued  to  exist  in  Westphalia  as  an  order 
for  mutual  assistance,  something  like  that  of  the  Freemasons, 
In  this  form  it  lingered  until  1838,  when  the  last  "Free  Count" 
died. 

Among  the  other  changes  introduced  during  Maximilian's 
reign  were  the  establishment  of  a  police  system  and  the  invention 
of  a  postal  system  by  Franz  of  Taxis.  The  latter  obtained  a  monop- 
oly of  the  post  routes  throughout  Germany,  and  his  family,  which 
afterward  became  that  of  Thurn  and  Taxis,  received  an  enormous 
revenue  from  this  source  from  that  time  down  to  the  present  day. 
Maximilian  himself  devoted  a  great  deal  of  time  and  study  to  the 
improvement  of  artillery,  and  many  new  forms  of  cannon  which 
were  designed  by  him  are  still  preserved  in  Vienna. 

Although  the  people  of  Germany  did  not  share  to  any  great 
extent  in  the  passion  for  travel  and  adventure  which  followed  the 
discovery  of  America  in  1492  and  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa 
in  1498,  they  were  directly  affected  by  the  changes  which  took  place 
in  the  commerce  of  the  world.  The  supremacy  of  Venice  in  the 
south  and  of  the  Hanseatic  League  in  the  north  of  Europe  began 
slowly  to  decline,  while  the  powers  which  undertook  to  colonize  the 
new  lands — England,  Spain,  and  Portugal — rose  in  commercial 
importance. 

The  last  years  of  Maximilian  promised  new  splendors  to  the 
House  of  Hapsburg.  In  15 15  his  younger  grandson,  Ferdinand, 
married  the  daughter  of  Ladislas,  King  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary, 
whose  only  son  died  shortly  afterward,  leaving  Ferdinand  heir  to 
the  double  crown.  In  15 16  the  emperor's  elder  grandson,  Charles, 
became  king  of  Spain,  Sicily  and  Naples,  in  addition  to  Burgundy 
and  Flanders,  which  he  held  as  the  great-grandson  of  Charles  the 
Bold.  At  a  diet  held  at  Augsburg,  in  15 18,  Maximilian  made 
great  exertions  to  have  Charles  elected  his  successor,  but  failed  on 
account  of  the  opposition  of  Pope  Leo  X.  and  Francis  I.  of  France, 
whose  agents  were  present  with  heavy  bribes  in  their  pockets. 


ftSft  GERMANY 

1618-1519 

Disappointed  and  depressed,  the  emperor  left  Augsburg  and 
went  to  Innsbruck,  but  the  latter  city  refused  to  entertain  him  until 
some  money  which  he  had  borrowed  of  it  should  be  refunded.  His 
strength  had  been  failing  for  years  before,  and  he  always  traveled 
with  a  coffin  among  his  baggage.  He  now  felt  his  end  approach- 
ing, took  up  his  abode  in  the  little  town  of  Wels,  and  devoted  his 
remaining  days  to  religious  exercises.  There  he  died  on  January 
II,  1519,  in  the  sixtieth  year  of  his  age. 


Chapter   XXV 

THE  REFORMATION.    15 17-1546 

WHEN  the  Emperor  Maximilian  died  a  greater  man  than 
he  or  any  of  his  predecessors  on  the  imperial  throne  had 
already  begun  a  far  greater  work  than  was  ever  accom- 
plished by  any  political  ruler.  Out  of  the  ranks  of  the  poor,  op- 
pressed German  people  arose  the  chosen  leader  who  became  power- 
ful above  all  princes,  who  resisted  the  first  monarch  of  the  world, 
and  defeated  the  Church  of  Rome  after  her  undisturbed  reign  of  a 
thousand  years.  We  must  therefore  leave  the  succession  of  the 
House  of  Hapsburg  until  we  have  traced  the  life  of  Martin  Luther 
up  to  the  time  of  Maximilian's  death. 

The  Reformation,  which  was  now  so  near  at  hand,  already 
existed  in  the  feelings  and  hopes  of  a  large  class  of  the  people. 
The  persecutions  of  the  Albigenses  in  France,  the  Waldenses  in 
Savoy,  and  the  followers  of  Wycliffe  in  England,  the  burning  of 
Huss  and  Jerome,  and  the  long  ravages  of  the  Hussite  wars  had 
made  all  Europe  familiar  with  the  leading  doctrine  of  each  of  these 
sects — that  the  Bible  was  the  highest  authority,  the  only  source  of 
Christian  truth.  Earnest,  thinking  men  in  all  countries  were  thus 
led  to  examine  the  Bible  for  themselves,  and  the  great  dissemination 
of  the  study  of  the  ancient  languages  during  the  fifteenth  century 
helped  very  much  to  increase  the  knowledge  of  the  sacred  volume. 
Then  came  the  art  of  printing,  as  a  most  providential  aid,  making 
the  Book  accessible  to  all  who  were  able  to  read  it. 

Martin  Luther,  the  son  of  a  poor  miner,  was  born  in  the  little 
Saxon  town  of  Eisleben,  not  far  from  the  Harz  Mountain,  on  No- 
vember 10,  1483.  Luther's  parents  for  several  generations  had 
been  peasants  of  an  honest,  sturdy  sort,  simple  in  mind  and  strong 
in  body.  From  them  he  inherited  many  of  his  best  characteristics. 
He  was  essentially  a  man  of  the  common  people.  He  understood 
them,  and  later  was  able  to  make  them  understand  him  by  his  use 
of  popular  phrases  and  metaphors  drawn  from  homely  every-day 
experience.  It  was  vnth  true  pride  that  he  later  declared,  "  I  am 
a  peasant's  son;  my  father,  my  grandfather,  and  my  great-grand- 

233 


234f  GERMANY 

1500-1505 

father  were  all  peasants."  Luther  was  strong  and  robust  in  body ; 
he  took  a  keen  pleasure  in  nature,  in  outdoor  life,  and  in  healthful 
amusements.  His  fearless  courage  stands  in  striking  contrast  with 
the  cowardice  of  his  contemporary,  Erasmus,  who  was  ready  to 
sacrifice  principles  for  the  sake  of  peace.  But  Luther  also  inherited 
the  superstitious  nature  common  to  the  German  peasantry.  He 
believed  in  a  very  real  hell  and  an  active  devil.  The  boy  Martin  first 
attended  a  monkish  school  at  Magdeburg.  At  fourteen  he  was 
sent  to  a  boarding-school  at  Eisenach  in  Thuringia  and  became  what 
is  called  a  "  wandering  scholar  " — that  is,  to  gain  his  means  of  sup- 
port he  went  about  with  his  lute  on  his  arm  singing  from  door  to 
door  for  alms,  or  sometimes  chanting  in  the  churches.  As  a  boy 
he  was  so  earnest,  studious  and  obedient,  and  gave  such  intellectual 
promise,  that  his  parents  stinted  themselves  in  order  to  save  enough 
from  their  scanty  earnings  to  secure  him  a  good  education.  At 
the  same  time  their  circumstances  gradually  improved,  and  in  1501 
they  were  able  to  send  him  to  the  University  of  Erfurt.  Four  years 
afterward  he  was  graduated  with  honor,  taking  the  degree  of  M.  A., 
and  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  upon  Aristotle. 

Luther's  father  desired  that  he  should  study  jurisprudence, 
but  his  thoughts  were  already  turned  toward  religion.  A  copy  of 
the  Bible  in  the  library  of  the  university  excited  in  him  such  a 
spiritual  struggle  that  he  became  seriously  ill.  It  is  said  that  a 
few  weeks  later  he  was  caught  out  in  a  terrific  thunder-storm;  as 
the  lightning  flashed  before  his  eyes  he  uttered  a  hasty  vow  that  if 
his  life  were  spared  he  would  become  a  monk.  He  immediately 
repented  of  his  vow,  well  knowing  the  disappointment  and  anger  it 
would  cause  his  father.  But  to  Luther's  mind  a  vow  once  made 
was  a  solemn  thing  and  must  be  kept.  Accordingly,  in  1505,  he 
entered  the  Augfustinian  monastery  at  Erfurt.  There  he  prayed, 
fasted,  and  followed  the  most  rigid  discipline  of  the  order,  in  the 
hope  of  obtaining  peace  of  mind,  but  in  vain.  He  would  shut  him- 
self up  in  a  cell  and  passed  through  such  mental  struggles  that  once 
he  was  found  senseless  on  the  floor.  But  gradually  he  found  peace 
of  mind  in  the  doctrine  of  "  Justification  by  Faith."  It  was  this 
zealous  study  of  the  Bible  and  its  precise  meaning  which  gave  him 
henceforth  not  only  a  firm  faith,  but  a  peace  and  cheerfulness  which 
was  never  afterward  disturbed  by  trials  or  dangers. 

The  Elector  of  Saxony,  Frederick  the  Wise,  had  founded  a 
new  university  at  Wittenberg,  and  sought  to  obtain  competent  pro- 


T~ 


i  ^  ^  5  - 

O.S  5  -  3 


S  H  3   e  f 


i  «  8  g  ^ 


^ 
li' 


THE     REFORMATION  2S5 

1505-1517 

fessors  for  it.  The  vicar-general  of  the  Augustinian  Order,  to  whom 
Luther's  zeal  and  ability  were  known,  recommended  him  for  one  of 
the  places,  and  in  1508  he  began  to  lecture  in  Wittenberg,  first  on 
Greek  philosophy  and  then  on  theology.  His  success  was  so  marked 
that  in  15 10  he  was  sent  by  the  Order  on  a  special  mission  to  Rome, 
where  the  laxness  of  the  church  made  a  profound  impression  upon 
his  mind.  He  returned  to  Germany,  feeling  as  he  never  had  felt 
before  the  truth  of  the  words,  "  the  just  shall  live  by  faith,"  and 
realizing  also  the  necessity  of  a  reformation  in  the  church.  In 
1 5 12  he  was  made  doctor  of  theology,  and  from  that  time  forward 
his  teachings,  which  were  based  upon  his  own  knowledge  of  the 
Bible,  began  to  bear  abundant  fruit. 

In  the  year  15 17  the  Pope,  Leo  X.,  famous  both  for  his  lux- 
urious habits  and  his  love  of  art,  in  order  to  raise  funds  to  continue 
the  reconstruction  of  the  great  church  of  St.  Peter,  arranged  for 
an  extensive  sale  of  so-called  indulgences,  both  for  the  living  and 
the  dead.  In  order  to  understand  the  indulgence  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  according  to  the  Catholic  Church  the  priest  had  the 
right  to  forgive  the  sin  of  a  truly  contrite  sinner  who  had  duly 
confessed  his  evil  deeds.  This  absolution  freed  the  sinner  from  the 
deadly  guilt  which  would  otherwise  have  dragged  him  down  to 
hell,  but  it  did  not  free  him  from  the  penalities  which  God,  or  His 
representative,  the  priest,  might  choose  to  impose  upon  him. 
Serious  penances  had  earlier  been  imposed  by  the  church  for  wrong- 
doing, but  in  Luther's  time  the  sinner  who  had  been  absolved  was 
chiefly  afraid  of  the  sufferings  reserved  for  him  in  purgatory.  It 
was  there  that  his  soul  would  be  purified  and  prepared  for  heaven. 
The  indulgence  was  a  pardon  through  which  the  contrite  sinner 
escaped  a  part,  or  all,  of  the  punishment  which  remained  even  after 
he  had  been  absolved.  The  pardons  did  not  therefore  forgive  the 
guilt  of  the  sinner,  for  that  had  necessarily  to  be  removed  before 
the  indulgence  was  granted ;  it  only  removed  or  mitigated  the  penal- 
ties which  even  the  forgiven  sinner  would,  without  the  indulgence, 
have  expected  to  undergo  in  purgatory.^ 

^  It  is  a  common  mistake  of  Protestants  to  suppose  that  men  also  pur- 
chased pardons  in  advance  for  the  crimes  they  intended  to  commit.  The 
Catholic  Church  never  sanctioned  this  in  the  slightest  degree.  A  person  pro- 
posing to  commit  sin  could  not  possibly  be  contrite  in  the  eyes  of  the  church, 
and  even  if  he  secured  an  indulgence,  it  would,  according  to  the  theologians,  be 
quite  worthless.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  unscrupulous  agents  of  the  church 
without  any  sanction  may  have  occasionally  sold  indulgences  to  persons  about 
to  commit  sin,  and  pretended  that  they  would  be  efficacious. 


286  GERMANY 

1517-1518 

These  indulgences  were  made  to  cover  nearly  all  forms  of 
crime  and  were  graduated  in  price.  The  right  of  selling  them  was 
granted  out  to  agents,  who  received  their  pay  by  reserving  a  part 
of  the  profits  for  their  own  pockets.  Albert,  Archbishop  of 
Mayence,  bought  the  right  of  selling  indulgences  in  Germany,  and 
appointed  as  his  agent  a  Dominican  monk  of  the  name  of  Tetzel. 
The  latter  began  traveling  through  the  country  like  a  peddler,  pub- 
licly offering  for  sale  the  pardon  of  the  Catholic  Church  for  all 
varieties  of  crime.  Unfortunately  Tetzel,  like  many  of  the  other 
agents,  was  very  eager  for  his  own  profits,  and  made  reckless  claims 
for  the  indulgences,  to  which  .no  thoughtful  churchman  or  even 
layman  could  listen  without  disapproval.  He  gave  people  to  un- 
derstand that  as  soon  as  their  money  chinked  in  his  money-box  the 
souls  of  their  friends  would  be  let  out  of  purgatory.  It  shocked 
thoughtful  people;  it  made  them  begin  to  dislike  the  whole  indul- 
gence system  and  call  them  "  false  pardons  " ;  it  made  them  begin  to 
wonder  whether  there  was  anything  in  the  Bible  which  really  gave 
the  church  this  power  of  remitting  the  punishment  for  sins.  In  other 
districts  Tetzel  only  stirred  up  the  abhorrence  of  the  people,  and  in- 
creased their  burning  desire  to  have  such  enormities  suppressed. 

Only  one  man,  however,  dared  to  come  out  openly  and  con- 
demn the  Papal  indulgences.  This  was  Dr.  Martin  Luther,  who 
on  October  31,  15 17,  nailed  upon  the  door  of  the  church  at 
Wittenberg  a  series  of  ninety-five  theses,  or  theological  declara- 
tions, the  truth  of  which  he  offered  to  prove  against  all  adversaries. 
The  substance  of  them  was  that  the  pardon  of  sins  came  only 
from  God,  and  could  only  be  purchased  by  true  repentance :  that  to 
offer  indulgences  for  sale,  as  Tetzel  was  doing,  was  an  unchristian 
act,  contrary  to  the  genuine  doctrines  of  the  church;  and  that  it 
could  not,  therefore,  have  been  sanctioned  by  the  Pope.  Luther's 
object,  at  this  time,  was  not  to  separate  from  the  Church  of  Rome, 
but  to  reform  and  purify  it. 

The  ninety-five  theses,  which  were  written  in  Latin,  were  im- 
mediately translated,  printed,  and  circulated  throughout  Germany. 
They  were  followed  by  replies,  in  which  the  action  of  the  Pope  was 
defended ;  Luther  was  styled  a  heretic,  and  threatened  with  the  fate 
of  Huss.  He  defended  himself  in  pamphlets,  which  were  eagerly 
read  by  the  people;  and  his  followers  increased  so  rapidly  that 
Leo.  X.,  who  had  summoned  him  to  Rome  for  trial,  finally  agreed 
that  he  should  present  himself  before  the  Papal  legate,  Cardinal 


THE     REFORMATION  287 

1518-1519 

Cajetanus,  at  Augsburg.  The  latter  simply  demanded  that  Luther 
should  retract  what  he  had  preached  and  written,  as  being  contrary 
to  the  Papal  bulls ;  whereupon  Luther,  for  the  first  time,  was  com- 
pelled to  declare  that  "  the  command  of  the  Pope  can  only  be 
respected  as  the  voice  of  God  when  it  is  not  in  conflict  with  the  Holy 
Scriptures." 

The  vicar-general  of  the  Augustinians  was  still  Luther's  friend, 
and,  fearing  that  he  was  not  safe  in  Augsburg,  he  had  him  let  out 
of  the  city  at  daybreak,  through  a  small  door  in  the  wall,  and  then 
supplied  with  a  horse.  Luther  reached  Wittenberg  again  in  safety. 
He  discovered  that  he  had  become  a  famous  man.  All  Germany 
was  talking  about  him  and  the  ninety-five  theses.  The  reason  of 
this  popularity  was  that  Luther  had  had  the  courage  to  put  into 
words  what  a  great  many  people  had  already  begun  to  think  but 
had  not  definitely  formulated  for  themselves.  Luther  had  put  their 
thoughts  into  words  for  them  and  they  were  ready  to  support  him, 
even  with  arms,  if  need  be.  Thus  Frederick  the  Wise  of  Saxony, 
though  summoned  to  deliver  Luther  up,  refused  to  do  so  unless  he 
could  be  assured  that  Luther  would  have  a  fair  hearing.  About 
the  same  time  Leo  X.  declared  that  the  practices  assailed  by  Luther 
were  doctrines  of  the  church,  and  must  be  accepted  as  such.  Fred- 
erick began  to  waver;  but  the  young  Philip  Melanchthon,  Justus 
Jonas,  and  other  distinguished  men  connected  with  the  university 
exerted  their  influence,  and  the  elector  finally  refused  the  demand. 
The  Emperor  Maximilian,  now  near  his  end,  sent  a  letter  to  the 
Pope,  begging  him  to  arrange  the  difficulty,  and  Leo  X.  commis- 
sioned his  nuncio,  a  Saxon  nobleman  named  Karl  von  Miltitz,  to 
meet  Luther.  The  meeting  took  place  at  Altenburg  in  15 19.  The 
nuncio,  who  afterward  reported  that  he  would  not  undertake  to 
remove  Luther  from  Germany  with  the  help  of  ten  thousand  sol- 
diers, for  he  had  found  ten  men  for  him  where  one  was  for  the 
Pope,  was  a  mild  and  conciliatory  man.  He  prayed  Luther  to 
pause,  for  he  was  destroying  the  peace  of  the  church,  and  succeeded 
by  his  persuasions  in  inducing  him  to  promise  to  keep  silence,  pro- 
vided his  antagonists  remained  silent  also. 

This  was  merely  a  truce,  and  it  was  soon  broken.  Dr.  Eck,  a 
German  theologian  noted  for  his  devotion  to  the  Pope  and  his  great 
skill  in  debate,  challenged  Luther's  friend  and  follower,  Carlstadt, 
to  a  public  discussion  in  Leipzig;  it  was  not  long  before  Luther 
himself  felt  compelled  to  take  part  in  it.  The  discussion  turned  upon 


238  GERMANY 

1519 

the  powers  of  the  Pope.  Luther,  who  had  been  reading  church 
history,  declared  that  the  Pope  had  not  enjoyed  his  supremacy  for 
more  than  four  hundred  years.  This  statement  was  not  quite  ac- 
curate, but,  neverthelesss,  he  had  hit  upon  an  argument  against 
the  customs  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  which  has  ever  since 
been  constantly  urged  by  Protestants.  They  assert  that  the  me- 
diaeval church  and  the  Papacy  developed  slowly,  and  that  the 
Apostles  in  the  time  of  Christ  knew  nothing  of  masses,  indulgences, 
purgatory,  and  the  supremacy  of  a  Pope  at  Rome.  Eck  was  quick 
to  point  out  that  Luther's  views  resembled  those  of  Wycliffe  and 
Huss,  which  had  been  condemned  as  heretical  by  the  Council  of 
Constance.  Luther  was  forced  to  admit  that  the  council  had  con- 
demned some  thoroughly  Christian  teachings.  It  led  him  to  the 
conviction  that  even  a  general  council  might  err,  and,  "  that  we  are 
all  good  Hussites;  yes,  Paul  and  St.  Augustine  were  good  Hus- 
sites." Luther's  encounter  with  a  disputant  of  European  reputa- 
tion, and  the  startling  admissions  which  he  was  compelled  to  make, 
first  made  him  realize  that  he  was  becoming  the  leader  in  an  attack 
upon  the  church.  He  began  to  see  that  a  great  change  and  up- 
heaval were  unavoidable.  The  struggle  by  this  time  had  affected 
all  Germany,  the  middle  class  and  smaller  nobles  being  mostly  on 
Luther's  side,  while  the  priests  and  reigning  princes,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  were  against  him.  In  order  to  defend  himself  from 
misrepresentation  and  justify  his  course,  he  published  two  pam- 
phlets, one  called  "  An  Appeal  to  the  Emperor  and  Christian  Nobles 
of  Germany,"  and  the  other,  "  Concerning  the  Babylonian  Captivity 
of  the  Church."  *  These  were  scattered  by  the  new  printing  presses 
and  read  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  all  over  the  country. 
Pope  Leo  X.  immediately  issued  a  bull,  ordering  all  Luther's 
writings  to  be  burned,  excommunicating  those  who  should  believe 
in  them,  and  summoning  Luther  to  Rome.  This  only  increased  the 
popular  excitement  in  Luther's  favor,  and  on  December  lo,  1520, 

*The  gist  of  these  was  as  follows:  "To  His  Imperial  Majesty  and  the 
Christian  Nobility  of  the  German  Nation,  Martin  Luther  wishes  grace,  etc.  The 
Romanists  have  raised  round  themselves  walls  to  protect  themselves  from  re- 
form. One  is  their  doctrine  that  there  are  two  separate  estates ;  the  one  spiritual, 
vis.,  Pope,  bishops,  priests  and  monks;  the  other  secular,  vis.,  princes,  nobles, 
artisans,  and  peasants.  And  they  lay  it  down  that  the  secular  power  has  no 
power  over  the  spiritual,  but  that  the  spiritual  is  above  the  secular;  whereas  in 
tntth,  all  Christians  are  spiritual  and  there  is  no  difference  among  them.  The 
secular  power  is  of  God,  to  punish  the  wicked  and  protect  the  good,  and  so  has 
rule  over  the  whole  body  of  Christians,  without  exception,  Pope,  bishops,  monks, 


THE     REFORMATION  239 

1519-1520 

he  took  the  step  which  made  impossible  any  reconciliation  between 
himself  and  the  Papal  power.  Accompanied  by  the  professors 
and  students  of  the  university,  he  had  a  fire  kindled  outside  of 
one  of  the  gates  of  Wittenberg,  placed  therein  the  books  of  Canon 
Law  and  various  writings  in  defense  of  the  Pope,  and  then  cast 
the  Papal  bull  into  the  flames,  with  the  words:  "As  thou  hast 
tormented  the  Lord  and  His  saints,  so  may  eternal  flame  torment 
and  consume  thee !  "  This  was  the  boldest  declaration  of  war  ever 
hurled  at  such  an  overwhelming  authority.  The  knight  Ulric  von 
Hutten,  a  distinguished  scholar  who  had  been  crowned  as  poet 
by  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  openly  declared  for  Luther ;  the  rebel- 
lious Baron  Franz  von  Sickingen  offered  him  his  castle  as  a  safe 
place  of  refuge.  Frederick  the  Wise  was  now  his  steadfast  friend, 
and,  although  the  dangers  which  beset  him  increased  every  day,  his 
own  faith  in  the  righteousness  of  his  cause  only  became  firmer  and 
purer. 

By  this  time  the  question  of  electing  a  successor  to  Maximilian 
had  been  settled.  When  the  diet  came  together  at  Frankfort,  in 
June,  1 5 19,  two  prominent  candidates  presented  themselves — King 
Francis  L  of  France,  and  King  Charles  of  Spain,  Naples,  Sicily, 
and  the  Spanish  possessions  in  the  newly  discovered  America.  The 
former  of  these  had  no  other  right  to  the  crown  than  could  be  pur- 
chased by  the  wagonloads  of  money  which  he  sent  to  Germany; 
the  latter  was  the  grandson  of  Maximilian,  and  also  represented,  in 
his  own  person,  Austria,  the  Netherlands,  and  the  county  of  Bur- 
gundy. Again  the  old  jealousy  of  so  much  power  arose  among  the 
electors,  and  they  gave  their  votes  to  Frederick  the  Wise,  of  Sax- 
ony. He,  however,  shrank  from  the  burden  of  the  imperial  rule 
at  such  a  time,  and  declined  to  accept.  Then  Charles  of  Spain,  who 
had  ruined  the  prospects  of  Francis  L  by  distributing  850,000  gold 
florins  among  the  members  of  the  diet,  was'  elected  without  any 
further  difficulty.      The  following  year  he  was  crowned  at  Aix-la- 

nuns,  and  all.  For  St  Paul  says,  '  Let  every  soul  [and  I  reckon  the  Pope  one] 
be  subject  to  the  higher  power.'  .  .  .  Let  the  power  of  the  Pope  be  reduced 
within  clear  limits.  Let  there  be  fewer  cardinals  and  let  them  not  keep  the  best 
things  for  themselves.  Let  the  national  churches  be  more  independent  of  Rome. 
Let  there  be  fewer  pilgrimages  to  Italy.  Let  there  be  fewer  convents.  Let 
priests  marry.  Let  us  inquire  into  the  position  of  the  Hussites,  and  if  Huss  was 
in  the  right,  let  us  join  with  him  in  resisting  Rome.  .  .  .  Enough  for  this 
time!  I  know  right  well  I  have  sung  in  a  high  strain.  Well,  I  know  another 
little  song  about  Rome  and  her  people  I  Do  their  ears  itch?  I  will  sing  it  also, 
and  in  the  highest  notes." 


240  GERMANY 

1520-1521 

Chapelle,  and  became  Charles  V.  in  the  list  of  German  emperors. 
Although  he  reigned  thirty-six  years,  he  always  remained  a  for- 
eigner. He  never  even  learned  to  speak  tlie  German  language 
fluently,  his  tastes  and  habits  were  Flemish,  and  his  election  at  such 
a  crisis  in  the  history  of  Germany  was  a  crime  from  the  effects  of 
which  the  country  did  not  recover  for  three  hundred  years. 

Luther  wrote  to  the  new  emperor  immediately  after  the  elec- 
tion, begging  that  he  might  not  be  condemned  unheard,  and  was  so 
earnestly  supported  by  Frederick  the  Wise,  who  had  voted  for 
Charles  at  the  diet,  that  the  latter  sent  Luther  a  formal  invitation 
to  appear  before  him  at  Worms,  where  a  new  diet  had  been  called 
to  take  measures  for  improving  the  administration  of  the  empire, 
and  to  raise  a  military  force  to  drive  the  French  out  of  Lombardy, 
which  Francis  I.  had  seized.  Luther  considered  this  opportunity 
"  a  call  from  God."  He  set  out  for  Wittenberg,  and  wherever  he 
passed  the  people  flocked  together  in  great  numbers  to  see  him  and 
hear  him  speak.  On  approaching  Worms  one  of  his  friends  tried 
to  persuade  him  to  turn  back,  but  he  answered :  "  Though  there 
were  as  many  devils  in  the  city  as  tiles  on  the  housetops,  yet  would 
I  go ! "  He  entered  Worms  in  an  open  wagon,  in  his  monk's 
dress,  stared  at  by  an  immense  concourse  of  people.  The  same 
evening  he  received  visits  from  a  number  of  princes  and  noblemen. 

On  April  17,  1521,  Luther  was  conducted  by  the  marshal 
of  the  empire  to  the  city  hall,  where  the  diet  was  in  session. 
As  he  was  passing  through  the  outer  hall  the  famous  knight  and 
general,  George  von  Frundsberg,  clapped  him  upon  the  shoulder, 
with  the  words:  "Monk,  monk!  thou  art  in  a  strait,  the  like  of 
which  myself  and  many  leaders,  in  the  most  desperate  battles,  have 
never  known.  But  if  thy  thoughts  are  just,  and  thou  art  sure  of 
thy  cause,  go  on  in  God's  name,  and  be  of  good  cheer.  He  will  not 
forsake  thee ! "  Charles  V.  is  reported  to  have  said,  when  Luther 
entered  the  great  hall:  "That  monk  will  never  make  a  heretic 
of  me!" 

After  having  acknowledged  all  his  writings,  Luther  was 
called  upon  to  retract  them.  He  appeared  to  be  somewhat  embar- 
rassed and  undecided,  either  confused  by  the  splendor  of  the  im- 
perial court,  or  shaken  by  the  overwhelming  responsibility  resting 
upon  him.  He  therefore  asked  a  little  time  for  further  consider- 
ation, and  was  allowed  twenty-four  hours.  He  was  taken  back  to 
his  inn.      Without  in  the  streets  there  was  much  noise  and  the 


II 

r 


S      T3 

as     o 

O    CJ 


S   "  n° 


THE    REFORMATION  J841 

1521 

quarrels  of  soldiers  and  opposing  parties.  Within,  in  his  room, 
Luther  opened  his  Bible  before  him  and  was  heard  to  pray  long 
and  earnestly.  People  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  his  request 
for  more  time.  Some  thought  he  would  retract.  But,  in  the  din 
and  bustle  about  him,  Luther  wrote  a  letter  to  one  of  his  friends. 
"  I  write  to  you  from  the  midst  of  the  tumult.  I  confessed  myself 
the  author  of  my  books,  and  said  I  would  reply  to-morrow 
touching  my  recantation.  With  Christ's  help,  I  shall  never  retract 
one  tittle." 

When  he  reappeared  before  the  diet  the  next  day  he  was  calm 
and  firm.  In  a  plain,  yet  most  earnest  address,  delivered  first  in 
German,  and  then  in  Latin,  so  that  all  might  understand,  he  ex- 
plained the  grounds  of  his  belief,  and  closed  with  the  solemn  words : 
"  Unless,  therefore,  I  should  be  confuted  by  the  testimony  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  by  clear  and  convincing  reasons,  I  cannot  and 
will  not  retract,  because  there  is  neither  wisdom  nor  safety  in  acting 
against  conscience.  Here  I  stand;  I  cannot  do  otherwise:  God 
help  me !     Amen." 

Charles  V.,  without  allowing  the  matter  to  be  discussed  by  the 
diet,  immediately  issued  the  Edict  of  Worms,  which  proclaimed 
Luther  a  heretic  and  an  outlaw.  As  soon  as  the  remaining  twenty- 
one  days  of  his  safe  conduct  had  expired  everyone  was  forbidden 
to  give  him  food,  drink,  or  shelter;  on  the  contrary,  they  were  or- 
dered to  seize  him  and  hand  him  over  to  the  emperor's  officers ;  and 
no  one  was  to  "  buy,  sell,  read,  preserve,  copy,  or  print,  any  books 
of  the  aforesaid  Martin  Luther,  since  they  are  foul,  noxious,  sus- 
pected, and  published  by  a  notorious  and  stiff-necked  heretic." 
Charles  was  urged  by  many  of  the  partisans  of  Rome  not  even  to 
respect  his  promise  of  a  safe  conduct  for  twenty-one  days,  but  he 
answered :  "  I  do  not  mean  to  blush,  like  Sigismund,"  Luther's 
sincerity  and  courage  confirmed  the  faith  of  his  princely  friends. 
Frederick  the  Wise  and  the  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse  walked 
by  his  side  when  he  left  the  diet,  and  Duke  Eric  of  Brunswick  sent 
him  a  jug  of  beer.  His  followers  among  the  nobility  greatly  in- 
creased in  numbers  and  enthusiasm. 

It  was  certain,  however,  that  he  would  be  in  serious  danger  as 
soon  as  the  twenty-one  days  had  expired,  and  the  emperor  should 
proceed  to  enforce  the  Edict  of  Worms.  A  plot,  kept  secret  from 
all  his  friends,  was  formed  for  his  safety,  and  successfully  carried 
out  during  his  return  from  Worms  to  Wittenberg.    Luther  traveled 


242  GERMANY 

1521-1522 

in  an  open  wagon,  with  only  one  companion.  On  entering  the 
Thuringian  Forest  he  sent  his  escort  in  advance,  and  was  soon  after- 
ward, in  a  lonely  glen,  seized  by  four  knights  in  armor  and  with 
closed  visors,  placed  upon  a  horse  and  carried  away.  The  news 
spread  like  wild-fire  over  Germany  that  he  had  been  murdered,  and 
for  nearly  a  year  he  was  lost  to  the  world.  His  writings  were  only 
read  the  more :  the  Papal  bull  and  the  Edict  of  Worms  were  alike 
disregarded.  Charles  V.  went  back  to  Spain  immediately  after  the 
Diet  of  Worms,  after  having  transferred  the  German  possessions 
of  the  House  of  Hapsburg  to  his  younger  brother,  Ferdinand.  The 
business  of  suppressing  Luther's  doctrines  fell  chiefly  to  the  arch- 
bishops of  Mayence  and  Cologne,  and  to  the  Papal  legate. 

Luther,  meanwhile,  was  in  security  in  a  castle  called  the  Wart- 
burg,  on  the  summit  of  a  mountain  near  Eisenach.  He  was  dressed 
in  a  knightly  fashion,  wore  a  helmet,  breastplate  and  sword,  allowed 
his  beard  to  grow,  and  went  by  the  name  of  "  Squire  George." 
But  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  chamber — all  the  furniture  of  which 
is  preserved  to  this  day,  as  when  he  lived  in  it — he  worked  zealously 
upon  a  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  German.  In  the 
spring  of  1522  he  was  disturbed  in  his  labors  by  the  report  of  new 
doctrines  which  were  being  preached  in  Wittenberg.  His  friend 
Carlstadt  had  joined  a  fanatical  sect  called  the  Anabaptists.  These 
misguided  enthusiasts  mistook  their  own  excited  imaginations  for 
messages  from  heaven.  They  wanted  no  priests,  for  they  were 
themselves  prophets,  no  Bible,  for  they  were  themselves  inspired, 
and  they  went  about  preaching  violent  changes,  and  exciting  the 
crowds  who  heard  them  to  violent  deeds.  They  advocated  the 
abolition  of  the  mass,  the  destruction  of  pictures  and  statues,  and 
proclaimed  the  coming  of  God's  kingdom  upon  the  earth. 

The  experience  of  the  Bohemians  showed  Luther  the  neces- 
sity of  union  in  his  great  work  of  reforming  the  Christian  church. 
From  his  retreat  at  the  Wartburg  he  saw  at  once  how  all  this  de- 
lusion and  madness  would  injure  the  cause  of  the  Reformation. 
Already,  moreover,  his  enemies  were  triumphantly  pointing  to  the 
excesses  of  the  Anabaptists  as  the  natural  result  of  his  doctrines. 
There  was  no  time  to  be  lost ;  in  spite  of  the  remonstrance  of  the 
Elector  Frederick,  he  left  the  Wartburg,  and  rode  alone,  as  a  man- 
at-arms,  to  Wittenberg,  where  even  Melanchthon  did  not  recognize 
him  on  his  arrival.  He  began  preaching,  with  so  much  power  and 
eloquence  that  in  a  few  days  the  new  sect  lost  all  the  ground  it  had 


THE     REFORMATION  «48 

1522-1525 

gained,  and  its  followers  were  expelled  from  the  city.  The  neces- 
sity of  arranging  another  and  simpler  form  of  divine  worship  was 
made  evident  by  these  occurrences ;  and  after  the  publication  of  the 
New  Testament  in  German,  in  September,  1522,  Luther  and 
Melancthon  united  in  framing  a  new  service  for  Lutheran  churches. 

The  Reformation  made  such  progress  that  by  1523,  not  only 
Saxony,  Hesse,  and  Brunswick  had  practically  embraced  it,  but  also 
the  cities  of  Frankfort,  Strassburg,  Nuremburg,  and  Magdeburg, 
the  Augustinian  Order  of  monks,  a  part  of  the  Franciscans,  and  quite 
a  large  number  of  priests.  Now,  however,  a  new  and  most  serious 
trouble  arose,  partly  from  the  preaching  of  the  Anabaptists,  headed 
by  their  so-called  prophet,  Thomas  Miinzer,  and  partly  provoked  by 
the  oppressions  which  the  common  people  had  so  long  endured.  In 
the  summer  of  1524  the  peasants  of  Wiirtemberg  and  Baden  united, 
armed  themselves,  and  issued  the  manifesto  containing  Twelve 
Articles. 

They  demanded  the  right  to  choose  their  own  priests;  the 
restriction  of  tithes  to  their  harvests;  the  abolition  of  feudal 
serfdom;  the  use  of  the  forests;  the  regulation  of  the  privilege  of 
the  nobles  to  hunt  and  fish;  and  protection  in  certain  other  points 
against  the  arbitrary  power  of  the  landed  nobility.  They  seemed  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  Luther  would  support  them ;  but  he,  dread- 
ing a  civil  war  and  desirous  to  keep  the  religious  reformation  free 
from  any  political  movement,  published  a  pamphlet  condemning 
their  revolt.  At  the  same  time  he  used  his  influence  on  their  behalf 
with  the  reigning  priests  and  princes. 

The  excitement,  however,  was  too  great  to  be  subdued  by 
admonitions  of  patience  and  forbearance.  A  dreadful  war  broke 
out  in  1525:  the  army  of  30,000  peasants  ravaged  a  great  part  of 
southern  Germany,  destroying  castles  and  convents,  and  venting 
their  rage  in  the  most  shocking  barbarities,  which  were  afterward 
inflicted  upon  themselves  when  they  were  finally  defeated  by  the 
Count  of  Waldburg.  The  movement  extended  through  middle 
Germany  even  to  Westphalia,  and  threatened  to  become  general: 
some  parts  of  Thuringia  were  held  for  a  short  time  by  the  peasants, 
and  suffered  terrible  ravages.  Another  army  of  8000  headed  by 
Thomas  Miinzer  was  cut  to  pieces  near  Miihlhausen,  in  Saxony, 
and  by  the  end  of  the  year  1525  the  rebellion  was  completely  sup- 
pressed. In  this  short  time  some  of  the  most  interesting  monu- 
ments of  the  Middle  Ages,  among  them  the  grand  castle  of  the 


044  GERMANY 

1S25-1530 

Hohenstaufens,  in  Suabia,  had  been  leveled  to  the  earth;  whole 
provinces  were  laid  waste ;  thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children 
were  put  to  the  sword,  and  a  serious  check  was  given  to  the  prog- 
ress of  the  Reformation  through  all  southern  Germany. 

The  stand  which  Luther  had  taken  against  the  rebellion  pre- 
served the  friendship  of  those  princes  who  were  well-disposed 
toward  him,  but  he  took  no  part  in  the  measures  of  defense  against 
the  imperial  and  Papal  power  which  they  were  soon  compelled  to 
adopt.  He  devoted  himself  to  the  completion  of  his  translation  of 
the  Bible,  in  which  he  was  faithfully  assisted  by  Melanchthon  and 
others.  In  this  great  work  he  accomplished  even  more  than  a 
service  to  Christianity;  he  created  the  modern  German  language. 
Before  his  time  there  had  been  no  tongue  which  was  known  and 
accepted  throughout  the  whole  empire.  The  poets  and  minstrels  of 
the  Middle  Ages  wrote  in  Suabian;  other  popular  works  were  in 
Low  Saxon,  Franconian,  or  Alsatian.  The  dialect  of  Holland  and 
Flanders  had  so  changed  that  it  was  hardly  understood  in  Germany ; 
that  of  Brandenburg  and  the  Baltic  provinces  had  no  literature  as 
yet,  and  the  learned  or  scientific  works  of  the  time  were  written  in 
Latin. 

No  one  before  Luther  saw  that  the  simplest  and  most  expres- 
sive qualities  of  the  German  language  must  be  sought  for  in  the 
mouths  of  the  people.  With  all  his  scholarship,  he  never  used  the 
theological  style  of  writing,  but  endeavored  to  express  himself  so 
that  he  could  be  clearly  understood  by  all  men.  In  translating  the 
Old  Testament  he  took  extraordinary  pains  to  find  words  and 
phrases  as  simple  and  strong  as  those  of  the  Hebrew  writers.  He 
frequented  the  market-place,  the  merry-making,  the  house  of  birth, 
marriage,  or  death,  to  learn  how  the  common  people  expressed 
themselves  in  all  the  circumstances  of  life.  He  enlisted  his  friends 
in  the  same  service,  begging  them  to  note  down  for  him  any  pecu- 
liar, characteristic  phrase ;  "  for,"  said  he,  "  I  cannot  use  the  words 
heard  in  castles  and  courts."  Not  a  sentence  of  the  Bible  was 
translated  until  he  had  found  the  best  and  clearest  German  expres- 
sion for  it.  He  wrote,  in  1530:  "I  have  exerted  myself,  in 
translating,  to  give  pure  and  clear  German.  And  it  has  verily  hap- 
pened, that  we  have  sought  and  questioned  a  fortnight,  three,  four 
weeks,  for  a  single  word,  and  yet  it  was  not  always  found.  In  Job, 
we  so  labored,  Philip  Melanchthon,  Aurogallus,  and  I,  that  in  four 
days  we  sometimes  barely  finished  three  lines." 


MARTIN    LCTHEK 

(Horn    1483.     Died    1546) 

Painting   by    Lucas   Cranach 

in    the    Ufiszi,    Florence 

(The  picture  is  supposed  to  be  the   identical   one  suhniitted  to  TTis 

Holiness    Leo    X,    who    desired    to    see    the    features    of    the 

intrepid   monk.) 


THE     REFORMATION  «46 

1521-1530 

Pope  Leo  X.  died  in  1521,  and  was  succeeded  by  Adrian  VI., 
the  last  German  to  wear  the  Papal  crown.  He  admitted  many  of 
the  corruptions  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  seemed  inclined  to  re- 
form them,  but  he  lived  only  two  years,  and  his  successor  was 
Clement  VII.,  a  nephew  of  Leo.  The  latter  induced  Ferdinand  of 
Austria,  the  dukes  of  Bavaria,  and  several  bishops  to  unite  in  a 
league  for  suppressing  the  spread  of  Luther's  doctrines.  There- 
upon the  electors  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  Philip  of  Hesse,  the 
dukes  of  Brunswick  and  Mecklenburg,  the  counts  of  Mansfeld  and 
Anhalt,  and  the  city  of  Magdeburg  formed  a  counter-alliance  at 
Torgau,  in  1526.  At  the  diet  held  in  Speyer  the  same  year  the 
party  of  the  Reformation  was  so  strong  that  no  decree  against  it 
could  be  passed.  It  was  agreed  in  a  decree  of  the  diet  that  "  each 
state  should,  as  regards  the  Edict  of  Worms,  so  live,  rule,  and  bear 
itself  as  it  could  answer  to  God  and  the  emperor."  This  meant 
that  the  Catholic  and  Lutheran  princes  could  each  do  as  they  liked 
in  regard  to  the  religion  of  their  respective  territories.  From  this 
decree  of  the  Diet  of  Speyer  came  the  division  of  Germany  into 
Catholic  and  Protestant  states. 

The  organization  of  the  Lutheran  Church  which  was  by  this 
time  adopted  in  Saxony  soon  spread  over  all  northern  Germany. 
Its  principal  features  were  the  abolition  of  the  monastic  orders  and 
of  priestly  celibacy;  divine  service  in  the  language  of  the  country; 
the  distribution  of  the  Bible,  in  German,  to  all  persons;  the  com- 
munion, in  both  forms,  for  laymen;  and  the  instruction  of  the 
people  and  their  children  in  the  truths  of  Christianity.  The  former 
possessions  of  the  church  were  given  up  to  the  state,  and  Luther, 
against  Melanchthon's  advice,  even  insisted  on  uniting  the  episcopal 
authority  with  the  political,  in  the  person  of  the  reigning  prince. 
He  set  the  example  of  giving  up  priestly  celibacy,  by  marrying,  in 
1525,  Catharine  von  Bora,  a  nun  of  a  noble  family.  This  step 
created  a  great  sensation ;  even  many  of  Luther's  friends  condemned 
his  course ;  but  he  declared  that  he  was  right,  and  he  was  rewarded 
by  twenty-one  years  of  unalloyed  domestic  happiness. 

The  Emperor  Charles  V.,  during  all  these  events,  was  absent 
from  Germany.  His  first  war  with  France  was  brought  to  a  con- 
clusion by  the  battle  of  Pavia,  in  February,  1525,  when  Francis  I. 
was  captured  and  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  Madrid.  But  having 
purchased  his  freedom,  the  following  year,  by  promising  to  give  up 
his  claims  to  Italy,  Burgundy,  and  Flanders,  he  no  sooner  returned 


246  GERMANY 

1S25-15S0 

to  France  than  he  declared  his  promise  was  made  under  com- 
pulsion, and  therefore  not  binding.  He  not  only  refused  to  keep 
his  promise  and  give  up  the  territories,  but  allied  himself  with 
Pope  Clement  VII.,  who  was  jealous  of  the  emperor's  increasing 
power  in  Italy,  and  began  again  the  war  against  his  life-long  rival, 
Charles  V.  The  old  knight  George  von  Frundsberg  and  the  Con- 
stable de  Bourbon — a  member  of  the  royal  family  of  France  who 
had  gone  over  to  Charles  V.'s  side — then  united  their  forces,  which 
were  principally  German,  and  marched  upon  Rome.  The  city  was 
taken  by  storm  in  1527,  terribly  ravaged,  and  the  Pope  made  pris- 
oner. Charles  V.  pretended  not  to  have  known  of,  or  authorized, 
this  movement ;  he  liberated  the  Pope,  who  promised,  in  return,  to 
call  a  council  for  the  reformation  of  the  church.  The  war  con- 
tinued, however, — Venice,  Genoa,  and  England  being  also  involved 
— until  1 529,  when  it  was  terminated  by  the  Peace  of  Cambray. 

Charles  V.  and  the  Pope  then  came  to  an  understanding,  in 
virtue  of  which  the  former  was  crowned  King  of  Lombardy  and 
Emperor  of  Rome  in  Bologna  in  1530,  and  bound  himself  to  extir- 
pate the  doctrines  of  Luther  in  Germany.  In  Austria,  Bavaria,  and 
Wiirtemberg,  in  fact,  the  persecution  had  already  commenced: 
many  persons  had  been  hanged  or  burned  at  the  stake  for  professing 
the  new  doctrines.  Ferdinand  of  Austria,  who  had  meanwhile 
succeeded  to  the  crowns  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary,  was  compelled 
to  call  a  diet  at  Speyer  in  1529,  to  take  measures  against  the  Turks, 
then  victorious  in  Transylvania  and  a  great  part  of  Hungary;  a 
majority  of  Catholics  was  present,  and  they  passed  a  decree  re- 
peating the  outlawry  of  Luther  and  his  doctrines  by  the  Diet  of 
Worms.  Seven  reigning  princes,  headed  by  Saxony,  Brandenburg 
and  Hesse,  and  fifteen  imperial  cities  claimed  that  the  majority  had 
no  right  to  abrogate  the  edict  of  the  former  Diet  of  Speyer,  for  that 
had  passed  unanimously,  and  all  had  solemnly  pledged  themselves 
to  support  that  agreement.  They  therefore  appealed  in  protest  to 
the  emperor  and  a  future  council  against  the  tyranny  of  the  majority. 
Those  who  signed  this  appeal  were  called  "  Protestants."  Thus  or- 
iginated the  name  which  came  to  be  generally  applied  to  all  Chris- 
tians who  do  not  accept  the  rule  and  teachings  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church. 

The  history  of  the  Reformation  in  Switzerland  cannot  be  here 
given.  It  will  be  enough  to  say  that  Zwingli,  who  was  born  in  the 
canton  of  St.  Gall  in   1484,  resembled  Luther  in  his  character. 


THE     REFORMATION  247 

1525-1530 

in  his  earnest  devotion  to  study,  and  in  the  circumstance  that  his 
ideas  of  religious  reform  were  derived  from  an  intimate  study  of 
the  Bible.  But  Zwingli  and  Luther  differed  utterly  in  their  con- 
ception of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Luther  believed  in  the  "  real  pres- 
ence "  of  Christ  in  the  consecrated  bread  and  wine;  he  believed  in 
the  absolute  literalness  of  the  words,  "  This  is  my  body,"  and  de- 
clared that  at  every  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  "  the  actual  body 
of  Christ  was  bitten  with  the  teeth."  Zwingli's  great  contribution 
to  the  religious  thought  of  the  Reformation  was  that  he  took  the 
words  "  This  is  my  body  "  in  a  metaphorical  sense,  as  meaning, 
that  the  bread  and  wine  were  merely  symbols  or  tokens  of  Christ's 
body :  he  thought  it  a  debasement  of  the  Most  High,  who  sitteth  in 
heaven  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  to  think  that  at  the  bidding  of  men 
He  must  so  often  descend  to  earth.  Thus  were  formed  two  Prot- 
estant parties,  and  it  became  ever  more  difficult  for  them  to  unite 
against  the  Catholic  Church.  To  Philip  of  Hesse  this  theological 
difference  seemed  "  madness  and  raving,"  and  to  try  to  reach  a 
settlement  he  arranged  for  a  conference  between  the  two  reformers 
at  Marburg  in  1529.  It  was  his  passionate  desire  that  both  branches 
of  the  Protestants  should  become  united,  in  order  to  be  so  much  the 
stronger  to  meet  the  dangers  which  all  felt  were  coming.  But 
Luther,  who  labored  and  prayed  to  prevent  the  struggle  from  be- 
coming political,  and  who  had  opposed  even  the  league  of  the  Prot- 
estant princes  at  Torgau  in  1526,  was  with  difficulty  induced  to 
meet  Zwingli.  He  was  still  busy  with  his  translation  of  the  Bible, 
with  the  preparation  of  a  catechism  for  the  people,  a  collection  of 
hymns  to  be  used  in  worship,  and  other  works  necessary  to  the 
complete  organization  of  the  Protestant  Church. 

When  the  meeting  finally  took  place,  Melanchthon,  Jonas,  and 
many  other  distinguished  men  were  present:  both  Luther  and 
Zwingli  fully  and  freely  compared  their  doctrines,  but,  although 
they  were  united  on  many  essential  points,  they  could  not  agree  in 
regard  to  the  nature  of  the  Eucharist.  Luther,  as  he  sat  at  a  table 
opposite  Zwingli,  drew  from  his  pocket  a  piece  of  chalk  and  wrote 
on  the  table,  "  This  is  my  body,"  and  positively  refused  to  accept 
any  except  the  literal  meaning  of  the  words.  He  even  refused  to 
make  common  cause  with  the  Swiss  Protestants.  This  was  one  of 
several  instances  wherein  the  great  reformer  injured  his  cause 
through  his  lack  of  wisdom  and  tolerance;  in  small  things,  as  in 
great,  he  was  inflexible. 


248  GERMANY 

1530-1531 

So  matters  stood  in  the  beginning  of  1530,  when  Charles  V. 
returned  to  Germany,  after  an  absence  of  nine  years.  He  estab- 
lished his  court  at  Innsbruck,  and  summoned  a  diet  to  meet  at 
Augsburg,  in  April,  but  it  was  not  opened  until  the  20th  of  June. 
Melanchthon,  with  many  other  Protestant  professors  and  clergy- 
men, was  present.  Luther,  being  under  the  ban  of  the  empire, 
remained  in  Coburg,  where  he  wrote  his  grand  hymn,  "  Our  Lord, 
He  is  a  Tower  of  Strength."  The  Lutheran  princes  and  cities 
united  in  signing  a  Confession  of  Faith,  which  had  been  very  care- 
fully drawn  up  by  Melanchthon,  and  the  emperor  was  obliged  to 
consent  that  it  should  be  read  before  the  diet.  He  ordered,  how- 
ever, that  the  reading  should  take  place,  not  in  the  great  hall  where 
the  sessions  were  held,  but  in  the  bishop's  chapel,  and  at  a  very 
early  hour  in  the  morning.  The  object  of  this  arrangement  was  to 
prevent  any  but  the  members  of  the  diet  from  hearing  the  docu- 
ment. 

But  the  weather  was  intensely  warm,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
open  the  windows.  The  Saxon  chancellor,  Dr.  Bayer,  read  the 
confession  in  such  a  loud,  clear  voice  that  a  thousand  or  more  per- 
sons, gathered  on  the  outside  of  the  chapel,  were  able  to  hear  every 
word.  The  principles  asserted  were:  That  men  are  justified  by 
faith  alone;  that  an  assembly  of  true  believers  constitutes  the 
church;  that  it  is  not  necessary  that  forms  and  ceremonies  should 
be  everywhere  the  same ;  that  preaching,  the  sacraments,  and  infant 
baptism  are  necessary ;  that  Christ  is  really  present  in  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  should  be  administered  to  the  congre- 
gation in  both  forms;  that  monastic  vows,  fastings,  pilgrimages, 
and  the  invocation  of  saints  are  useless,  and  that  priests  must  be 
allowed  to  marry.  After  the  confession  had  been  read  many  per- 
sons were  heard  to  exclaim :  "  It  is  reasonable  that  the  abuses  of 
the  church  should  be  corrected;  the  Lutherans  are  right,  for  our 
spiritual  lords  have  carried  it  with  too  high  a  hand."  The  general 
impression  was  favorable  to  the  Protestants,  and  the  princes  who 
had  signed  the  confession  determined  that  they  would  maintain  it 
at  all  hazards.  This  "  Augsburg  Confession,"  as  it  was  thenceforth 
called,  was  the  foundation  of  the  Lutheran  Church  throughout 
Germany.  The  Zwinglians  were  not  present  at  Augsburg  and  did 
not  accept  the  Augsburg  Confession.  They  drew  up  a  statement  of 
their  own. 

The  emperor  ordered  a  refutation  of  the  Protestant  doctrines 


THE     REFORMATION  249 

1531-1532 

to  be  prepared  by  the  Catholic  theologians  who  were  present,  but 
refused  to  furnish  a  copy  to  the  Protestants,  and  prohibited  them 
from  making  any  reply.  The  statement  of  the  Catholics  admitted 
that  a  number  of  Melanchthon's  articles  were  perfectly  orthodox, 
but  rejected  altogether  the  part  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  which 
dealt  with  the  practical  reforms  introduced  by  the  Protestants. 
Charles  declared  the  Catholic  refutation  to  be  convincing  and  un- 
answerable, and  commanded  the  Protestants  to  accept  it.  They 
were  to  cease  troubling  the  Catholics  and  to  give  back  all  the  monas- 
teries and  church  property  which  they  had  seized.  As  to  the  abuses 
which  the  Protestants  complained  of,  he  promised  they  would  be 
corrected  by  himself  and  the  Pope  in  a  council  which  should  meet 
within  a  year.  This  he  hoped  would  be  able  to  settle  all  differences 
and  reform  the  church  according  to  the  views  of  the  Catholics. 
But  the  council  was  not  held  for  many  years,  and  meanwhile  the 
breach  became  more  and  more  permanent  between  Rome  and  more 
than  half  of  Germany.  Charles  V.  procured  the  election  of  his 
brother  Ferdinand  to  the  crown  of  Germany,  although  Bavaria 
united  with  the  Protestant  princes  in  voting  against  him. 

The  imperial  courts  in  the  ten  districts  were  now  composed 
entirely  of  Catholics,  and  they  were  ordered  to  enforce  the  suppres- 
sion of  Protestant  worship.  Thereupon  the  Protestant  princes  and 
delegates  from  the  cities  met  at  the  little  town  of  Schmalkalden,  in 
Thuringia,  and  on  March  29,  1531,  they  bound  themselves  to  unite, 
for  the  space  of  six  years,  in  resisting  the  imperial  decree.  Even 
Luther,  much  as  he  dreaded  a  religious  war,  could  not  oppose 
this  movement.  The  League  of  Schmalkalden,  as  it  is  called,  rep- 
resented so  much  military  strength  that  King  Ferdinand  became 
alarmed  and  strongly  advised  a  more  conciliatory  course  toward 
the  Protestants.  Suleiman  the  Magnificent,  Sultan  of  Turkey, 
who  had  conquered  all  Hungary,  was  marching  upon  Vienna 
with  an  immense  army,  and  openly  boasted  that  he  would  subdue 
Germany. 

It  thus  became  impossible  for  Charles  V.  either  to  suppress 
the  Protestants  at  this  time  or  to  repel  the  Turkish  invasion  with- 
out their  help.  He  was  compelled  to  call  a  new  diet,  which  met  at 
Nuremberg,  and  in  August,  1532,  concluded  the  Religious  Peace; 
both  parties  agreed  to  refrain  from  all  hostilities  until  a  general 
council  of  the  church  should  be  called.  Thereupon  the  Protestants 
loyally  contributed  their  share  of  troops  to  the  imperial  army.    The 


ftSO  GERMANY 

1532-1534 

army  soon  amounted  to  80,000  men  and  was  commanded  by  the 
famous  General  Sebastian  Schertlin,  himself  a  Protestant.  The 
Turks  were  defeated  everywhere,  the  siege  of  Vienna  was  raised, 
and  the  whole  of  Hungary  might  have  been  reconquered  but  for 
Ferdinand's  unpopularity  among  the  Catholic  princes. 

Other  cities  and  smaller  principalities  joined  the  League  of 
Schmalkalden,  the  power  of  which  increased  from  year  to  year. 
The  Religious  Peace  of  Nuremberg  greatly  favored  the  spread  of 
the  Reformation,  although  it  was  not  very  strictly  observed  by 
either  side.  In  1534  Wiirtemberg,  which  was  then  held  by  Fer- 
dinand of  Austria,  was  conquered  by  Philip  of  Hesse,  who  rein- 
stated the  exiled  duke,  Ulric.  The  latter  became  a  Protestant, 
and  thus  Wiirtemberg  was  added  to  the  League.  Charles  V.  would 
certainly  have  interfered  in  this  case,  but  he  had  left  Germany  for 
another  nine  years'  absence,  and  was  just  then  engaged  in  a  war 
with  Tunis.  The  reigning  princes  of  Brandenburg  and  Ducal 
Saxony  (Thuringia),  who  had  been  enemies  of  the  Reformation, 
died  and  were  succeeded  by  Protestant  sons:  in  1537  the  League 
of  Schmalkalden  was  renewed  for  ten  years  more,  and  the  so-called 
"  holy  alliances  "  which  were  attempted  against  it  by  Bavaria  and 
the  archbishops  of  Mayence  and  Salzburg  were  of  no  avail.  The 
Protestant  faith  continued  to  spread,  not  only  in  Germany,  but  also 
in  Denmark,  Sweden,  Holland,  and  England.  The  first  of  these 
countries  even  became  a  member  of  the  Schmalkalden  League 
in  1538. 

Out  of  the  "  Freedom  of  the  Gospel,"  which  was  the  first 
watchword  of  the  reformers,  smaller  sects  continued  to  arise,  not- 
withstanding they  met  with  almost  as  much  opposition  from  the 
Protestants  as  the  Catholics.  The  Anabaptists  obtained  possession 
of  the  city  of  Miinster  in  1534,  and  held  it  for  more  than  a  year, 
under  the  government  of  a  Dutch  tailor,  named  John  of  Leyden, 
who  had  himself  crowned  King  of  Zion,  introduced  polygamy,  and 
cut  off  the  heads  of  all  who  resisted  his  decrees.  When  the  Bishop 
of  Miinster  finally  took  the  city,  John  of  Leyden  and  two  of  his 
associates  were  tortured  to  death,  and  their  bodies  suspended  in 
iron  cages  over  the  door  of  the  cathedral.  About  the  same  time 
Simon  Menno,  a  native  of  Friesland,  founded  a  quiet  and  peaceful 
sect  which  was  named  after  him,  the  Mennonite,  and  which  still 
exists,  both  in  Germany  and  the  United  States. 

While,  therefore,  Charles  V.  was  carrying  on  his  wars,  alter- 


z  .5 

2^ 


•      THE     REFORMATION  251 

1534-1544 

nately  with  the  Barbary  States  and  with  Francis  I.  of  France,  the 
foundations  of  the  Protestant  Church,  in  spite  of  all  divisions  and 
disturbances,  were  permanently  laid  in  Germany.  Although  he 
had  been  brilliantly  successful  in  Tunis  in  1535,  he  failed  so  com- 
pletely before  Algiers  in  1541  that  Francis  I.  was  emboldened  to 
make  another  attempt,  in  alliance  with  Turkey,  Denmark,  and 
Sweden.  So  formidable  was  the  danger  that  the  emperor  was 
again  compelled  to  seek  the  assistance  of  the  German  Protestants, 
and  even  of  England.  He  returned  to  Germany  for  the  second 
time  and  called  a  diet  to  meet  in  Speyer,  which  renewed  the  Reli- 
gious Peace  of  Nuremberg,  with  the  assurance  that  Protestants 
should  have  equal  rights  before  the  imperial  courts  and  that 
they  would  be  left  free  until  the  meeting  of  a  free  council  of 
the  church. 

Having  obtained  an  army  of  40,000  men  by  these  concessions, 
Charles  V.  marched  into  France,  captured  a  number  of  fortresses, 
and  had  reached  Soissons  on  his  way  to  Paris  when  Francis  I. 
acknowledged  himself  defeated  and  begged  for  peace.  In  the 
Treaty  of  Crespy,  in  1544,  he  gave  up  his  claim  to  Lombardy, 
Naples,  Flanders,  and  Artois,  the  emperor  gave  him  a  part  of 
Burgundy,  and  both  united  in  a  league  against  the  Turks  and  Prot- 
estants, the  allies  of  one  and  the  other.  In  order,  however,  to 
preserve  some  appearance  of  fidelity  to  his  solemn  pledges,  the 
emperor  finally  prevailed  upon  the  Pope,  Paul  III.,  to  order  an 
ecumenical  council.  It  was  just  130  years  since  the  Catholic  Church 
had  promised  to  reform  itself.  The  delay  had  given  rise  to  the 
Protestant  Reformation,  which  was  now  so  powerful  that  only  a 
just  and  conciliatory  course  on  the  part  of  Rome  could  settle  the 
difficulty.  Instead  of  this,  the  council  was  summoned  to  meet  at 
Trent,  in  the  Italian  part  of  the  Tyrol ;  the  Pope  reserved  the  gov- 
ernment of  it  for  himself,  and  the  Protestants,  although  invited  to 
attend,  were  thus  expected  to  acknowledge  his  authority.  They 
unanimously  declared,  therefore,  that  they  would  not  be  bound  by 
its  decrees.  Even  Luther,  who  had  ardently  hoped  to  see  all  Chris- 
tians again  united  under  a  purer  organization  of  the  church,  saw 
that  a  reconciliation  was  impossible. 

The  publication  of  the  complete  translation  of  the  Bible  in 
1534  was  not  the  end  of  Luther's  labors.  His  leadership  in  the 
great  work  of  reformation  was  acknowledged  by  all,  and  he  was 
consulted  by  princes  and  clergymen,  by  scholars  and  jurists,  even 


252  GERMANY 

1544-1546 

by  the  common  people.  He  never  relaxed  in  his  efforts  to  preserve 
peace,  not  only  among  the  Protestant  princes,  who  could  not  yet 
overcome  their  old  habit  of  asserting  an  independent  authority, 
but  also  between  Protestants  and  Catholics.  Yet  he  could  hardly 
help  feeling  that  with  such  a  form  of  government,  and  such  an 
emperor  as  Germany  then  possessed,  peace  was  impossible;  he 
only  prayed  that  it  might  last  while  he  lived. 

Luther's  powerful  constitution  gradually  broke  down  under 
the  weight  of  his  labors  and  anxieties.  He  became  subject  to 
attacks  of  bodily  suffering,  followed  by  great  depression  of  mind. 
Nevertheless,  the  consciousness  of  having  in  a  great  measure  per- 
formed the  work  which  he  had  been  called  upon  to  do  kept  up  his 
faith,  and  he  was  accustomed  to  declare  that  he  had  been  made 
**  a  chosen  weapon  of  Grod,  known  in  heaven  and  hell,  as  well  as 
upon  earth."  In  January,  1546,  he  was  summoned  to  Eisleben, 
the  place  of  his  birth,  by  the  counts  of  Mansfeld,  who  begged  him 
to  act  as  arbitrator  between  them  in  a  question  of  inheritance. 
Although  much  exhausted  by  the  fatigues  of  the  winter  journey, 
he  settled  the  dispute,  and  preached  four  times  to  the  people.  His 
last  letter  to  his  wife,  written  on  February  14,  is  full  of  courage, 
cheerfulness,  and  tenderness. 

Two  days  afterward  his  strength  began  to  fail.  His  friend, 
Dr.  Jonas,  was  in  Eisleben  at  the  time,  and  Luther  forced  himself 
to  sit  at  the  table  with  him  and  with  his  own  two  sons ;  but  it  was 
noticed  that  he  spoke  only  of  the  future  life,  and  with  an  unusual 
earnestness  and  solemnity.  The  same  evening  it  became  evident 
to  all  that  his  end  was  rapidly  approaching:  he  grew  weaker  from 
hour  to  hour,  and  occasionally  repeated  passages  from  the  Bible 
in  German  and  Latin.  After  midnight  he  seemed  to  revive  a  little: 
Dr.  Jonas,  the  Countess  of  Mansfeld,  the  pastor  of  the  church 
at  Eisleben,  and  his  sons  stood  near  his  bed.  Then  Jonas  said: 
"  Beloved  Father,  do  you  acknowledge  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
our  Redeemer?"  Luther  answered  "Yes,"  in  a  strong  and  clear 
voice;  then,  folding  his  hands,  he  drew  one  deep  sigh  and  died, 
between  two  and  three  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  February  17. 

After  solemn  services  in  the  church  at  Eisleben  the  body  was 
removed  on  its  way  to  Wittenberg.  In  eveiy  village  through 
which  the  procession  passed  the  bells  were  tolled,  and  the  people 
flocked  together  from  all  the  surrounding  country.  The  population 
of  Halle,  men  and  women,  came  out  of  the  city  with  loud  cries  and 


THE     REFORMATION 


258 


1546 

lamentations,  and  the  throng  was  so  great  that  it  was  two  hours 
before  the  coffin  could  be  placed  in  the  church.  *'  Here,"  says  an 
eye-witness  of  the  scene,  "  we  endeavored  to  raise  the  funeral 
psalm,  "  De  profundis "  ["  Out  of  the  depths  have  I  cried  unto 
thee  "]  ;  but  so  heavy  was  our  grief  that  the  words  were  rather  wept 
than  sung."  On  February  i8,  1546,  the  remains  of  the  great 
reformer  were  given  to  the  earth  at  Wittenberg,  with  all  the  honors 
which  the  people,  the  authorities,  and  the  university  could  render. 


Chapter  XXVI 

GROWTH   OF   PROTESTANTISM.    1546-1600 

IUTHER,  throughout  his  life,  had  always  been  a  respecter 
of  established  authority ;  he  abhorred  civil  war,  and  wished 
— /  that  he  might  never  see  Germany  torn  by  religious  strifes. 
His  wish  was  gratified,  but  only  by  a  narrow  margin.  In  the  year 
following  his  death  the  long-feared  wars  broke  out  between  the 
Catholics,  under  the  leadership  of  Charles  V.,  and  the  Lutherans, 
who  were  united  in  the  Schmalkalden  League.  The  period  of  pros- 
perity for  the  Protestants  had  come  to  an  end.  Political  events 
which  had  so  long  granted  them  a  respite  from  an  enforcement  of 
the  Edict  of  Worms  by  an  imperial  army  no  longer  offered  them 
a  shelter.  Charles  V.  had  defeated  the  Turks  on  land  and  on  sea, 
and  along  the  northern  shores  of  Africa,  where  they  were  estab- 
lished as  pirates.  He  had  made  peace  with  his  rival  Francis  I. 
of  France;  Spam  was  in  complete  subjection,  and  Italy  under  his 
influence.  Now  at  last,  therefore,  in  1547,  he  thought  he  could 
carry  out  the  wish  of  the  Pope  and  put  down  the  Lutheran  heretics 
in  Germany. 

The  Council  of  Trent,  which  had  first  met  in  1545,  and  which 
was  composed  almost  entirely  of  Spanish  and  Italian  prelates,  fol- 
lowed the  instructions  of  the  Pope  and  declared  that  the  traditions 
of  the  Catholic  Church  were  of  equal  authority  with  the  Bible.  This 
made  a  reconciliation  with  the  Protestants  impossible.  In  fact,  if 
the  spirit  of  the  Protestant  faith  had  not  already  entered  into  the 
lives  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  the  Reformation  might  have  been 
lost  through  the  hesitation  of  some  princes  and  the  treachery  of 
others.  While  the  emperor  was  at  last  rid  of  most  of  his  enemies 
and  political  embarrassment,  the  Schmalkalden  League  was  weak- 
ened by  personal  quarrels  among  its  members;  yet  it  was  still  able 
to  raise  an  army  of  40,000  men,  which  was  placed  under  the  com- 
mand of  Sebastian  Schertlin.  Charles  V.  at  one  moment  had  only 
a  very  small  force  with  him  at  Ratisbon;  the  troops  he  had  sum- 
moned from  Flanders  and  Italy  had  not  arrived ;  and  an  energetic 

9&i 


PROTESTANTISM  265 

1547 

offensive  movement  by  the  Protestants  might  have  been  successful, 
and  so  given  the  Protestants  the  advantage  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  by  capturing  or  badly  defeating  the  emperor  himself. 

But  the  two  chiefs  of  the  Schmalkalden  League,  John  Fred- 
erick of  Saxony  and  Philip  of  Hesse,  showed  a  timidity  almost 
amounting  to  cowardice  in  this  emergency.  In  spite  of  Schertlin's 
entreaties,  they  refused  to  allow  him  to  move,  fearing,  as  they 
alleged,  to  invade  the  neutrality  of  Bavaria,  or  to  excite  Ferdinand 
of  Austria  against  them.  For  months  they  compelled  their  army 
to  wait,  while  the  emperor  was  constantly  receiving  reinforcements, 
among  them  12,000  Italian  troops  furnished  by  the  Pope.  Then, 
when  they  were  absolutely  forced  to  act,  a  new  and  unexpected 
danger  rendered  them  powerless.  Maurice,  Duke  of  Saxony,  sud- 
denly abjured  the  Protestant  faith,  declared  for  Charles  V.,  and 
took  possession  of  Electoral  Saxony,  which  belonged  to  his  cousin, 
John  Frederick.^  The  latter  hastened  home  with  his  own  portion 
of  the  army,  and  defeated  and  expelled  Maurice,  it  is  true,  but  in 
doing  so  gave  up  the  field  to  the  emperor.  Duke  Ulric  of  Wiir- 
temberg  first  humbly  submitted  to  the  latter,  then  Ulm,  Augsburg, 
Strassburg,  and  other  cities:  Schertlin  was  not  left  with  troops 
enough  to  resist,  and  the  imperial  and  Catholic  power  was  restored 
throughout  southern  Germany  without  a  struggle. 

In  the  spring  of  1547  Charles  V.  marched  into  northern  Ger- 
many, surprised  and  defeated  John  Frederick  of  Saxony  at  Miihl- 
berg  on  the  Elbe,  and  took  him  prisoner.  The  elector  was  so 
enormously  stout  and  heavy  that  he  could  only  mount  his  horse 
by  the  use  of  a  ladder;  so  the  emperor's  Spanish  cavalry  easily 
overtook  him  in  his  flight.  Charles  V.  now  showed  himself  in  his 
true  character:  he  appointed  the  fierce  Duke  of  Alba  president  of 
a  court  which  tried  John  Frederick  and  condemned  him  to  death. 
The  other  German  princes  protested  so  earnestly  against  this  sen- 
tence that  it  was  not  carried  out,  but  John  Frederick  was  compelled 
to  give  up  to  the  traitor  Maurice  the  title  of  elector  and  all  his  elec- 
toral territory  except  the  small  scattered  districts  west  of  the  Saale — 
the  territory  embraced  in  the  present  duchies  of  Meiningen,  Gotha, 
Weimar,  and  Altenburg.    He  steadfastly  refused,  however,  to  sub- 

1  In  1485  Saxony  had  been  divided  between  the  elder  and  younger  line. 
Electoral  Saxony,  with  its  capital  at  Wittenberg,  fell  to  the  elder  line,  to  which 
John  Frederick  belonged.  Ducal  Saxony,  with  its  capital  at  Dresden,  fell  to  the 
younger  line,  represented  in  1547  by  the  ambitious  and  unscrupulous  Maurice. 


ftse  GERMANY 

1547-1648 

mit  to  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  remained  firm  in 
the  Protestant  faith  during  the  five  years  of  imprisonment  which 
followed. 

His  wife,  the  Duchess  Sibylla,  heroically  defended  Wittenberg 
against  the  emperor,  but  when  John  Frederick  had  been  despoiled 
of  his  territory  she  could  no  longer  hold  the  city,  which  was  sur- 
rendered. Charles  V.  was  urged  by  Alba  and  others  to  burn 
Luther's  body  and  scatter  the  ashes,  as  those  of  a  heretic;  but  he 
answered,  like  a  man :  "  I  wage  no  war  against  the  dead."  Herein 
he  showed  the  better  side  of  his  nature,  although  only  for  a  moment. 
The  fate  of  Philip  of  Hesse  was  even  harder  than  that  of  the 
elector;  left  alone,  he  was  unable  to  resist  and  was  made  to  atone 
bitterly  for  his  long  attitude  of  passive  opposition  to  the  emperor's 
will.  Philip,  seeing  his  dangerous  position  and  persuaded  by  his 
son-in-law,  Maurice  of  Saxony,  promised  to  beg  the  emperor's 
pardon  on  his  knees,  to  destroy  all  his  fortresses  except  Cassel, 
and  to  pay  a  fine  of  150,000  gold  florins,  on  condition  that  he 
should  be  allowed  to  retain  his  princely  rights.  These  were  Charles 
V.'s  own  conditions;  but  when  Philip,  kneeling  before  him,  hap- 
pened (or  seemed)  to  smile  while  his  application  for  pardon  was 
being  read,  the  emperor  cried  out :  "  Wait,  I'll  teach  you  to  laugh !  " 
Breaking  his  solemn  word  without  scruple,  he  sent  Philip  instantly 
to  prison,  and  the  latter  was  kept  for  years  in  close  confinement, 
both  in  Germany  and  in  Flanders.  A  frustrated  attempt  at  flight 
drew  down  upon  him  further  severities;  the  man  who  had 
been  the  head  of  the  league  of  princes,  as  well  as  the  hope  of  the 
Protestant  party,  was  actually  threatened  with  torture  in  a  Flem- 
ish dungeon. 

Charles  V.  was  now  also  master  of  northern  Germany,  except 
the  city  of  Magdeburg,  which  was  strongly  fortified,  and  refused 
to  surrender.  He  intrusted  the  siege  of  the  place  to  Maurice  of 
Saxony,  and  returned  to  Bavaria  in  order  to  be  nearer  Italy.  He 
had  at  last  become  the  arbitrary  ruler  of  nearly  all  Germany:  he 
had  not  only  violated  his  word  in  dealing  with  the  princes,  but 
defied  the  diet  in  subjecting  them  by  the  aid  of  foreign  soldiers. 
His  court,  his  commanders,  his  prelates  were  Spaniards,  who, 
as  they  passed  through  the  German  states,  abused  and  insulted 
the  people  with  perfect  impunity.  The  princes  were  now  reaping 
only  what  they  themselves  had  sown ;  but  the  mass  of  the  people, 
who  had  had  no  voice  in  the  election — who  saw  their  few  rights 


PROTESTANTISM  «67 

1548-1552 

despised  and  tbeir  faith  threatened  with  suppression — ^suffered 
terribly  during  this  time. 

In  May,  1548,  the  emperor  proclaimed  what  was  called  the 
"Augsburg  Interim,"  which  allowed  to  the  Protestants  the  com- 
munion in  both  forms  and  the  marriage  of  priests,  but  insisted  that 
all  the  other  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the  Catholic  Church  should  be 
observed  until  the  council  should  pronounce  its  final  judgment. 
This  latter  body  had  removed  from  Trent  to  Bologna,  in  spite  of 
the  emperor's  remonstrance,  and  it  did  not  meet  again  at  Trent 
until  1 55 1,  after  the  death  of  Pope  Paul  III.  There  was,  in  fact, 
almost  as  much  confusion  in  the  church  as  in  political  affairs.  A 
number  of  intelligent,  zealous  prelates  desired  a  correction  of  the 
former  abuses,  and  they  were  undoubtedly  supported  by  the  em- 
peror himself ;  but  the  Pope,  with  the  French  and  Spanish  cardinals 
and  bishops,  controlled  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  the  council,  and 
thus  postponed  its  action  from  year  to  year. 

The  acceptance  of  the  "  Interim  "  was  resisted  both  by  Catho- 
lics and  Protestants.  Charles  V.  used  all  his  arts, — persuasion, 
threats,  armed  force, — and  succeeded  for  a  short  time  in  compelling 
a  sort  of  external  observance  of  its  provisions.  His  ambition  now 
was  to  have  his  son  Philip  chosen  by  the  diet  as  his  successor,  not- 
withstanding that  Ferdinand  of  Austria  had  been  elected  king  in 
1530,  and  had  governed  during  his  brother's  long  absence  from 
Germany.  The  Protestant  electors,  conquered  as  they  were,  and 
abject  as  many  of  them  had  seemed,  were  not  ready  to  comply; 
Ferdinand's  jealousy  was  aroused,  and  the  question  was  in  sus- 
pense when  a  sudden  and  startling  event  changed  the  whole  face 
of  affairs. 

Maurice  of  Saxony  had  been  besieging  Magdeburg  for  a  year, 
in  the  emperor's  name.  The  city  was  well-provisioned,  admirably 
defended,  and  the  people  answered  every  threat  with  defiance  and 
ridicule.  Maurice  grew  tired  of  his  inglorious  position,  sensitive 
to  the  name  of  "  Traitor  "  which  was  everywhere  hurled  against 
him,  and  indignant  at  the  continued  imprisonment  of  Philip  of 
Hesse.  He  made  a  secret  treaty  with  Henry  II.  of  France,  to 
whom  he  promised  Lorraine,  including  the  cities  of  Toul,  Verdun, 
and  Metz,  in  return  for  his  assistance;  and  then,  in  the  spring  of 
1552,  before  his  plans  could  be  divined,  marched  with  all  speed 
against  the  emperor,  who  was  holding  his  court  in  Innsbruck.  The 
latter  attempted  to  escape  to  Flanders,  but  Maurice  had  already 


»58  GERMANY 

1552-1553 

seized  the  mountain  passes.  Nothing  but  speedy  flight  across  the 
Alps,  in  night  and  storm,  attended  only  by  a  few  followers,  saved 
Charles  V.  from  capture.  The  Council  of  Trent  broke  up  and  fled 
in  terror;  John  Frederick  of  Saxony  and  Philip  of  Hesse  were 
freed  from  their  long  confinement,  and  the  Protestant  cause  gained 
at  one  blow  all  the  ground  it  had  lost. 

Maurice  returned  to  Passau,  on  the  Danube,  where  Ferdinand 
of  Austria  united  with  him  in  calling  a  diet  of  the  German  electors. 
The  latter,  bishops  as  well  as  princes,  admitted  that  the  Protestants 
could  be  no  longer  suppressed  by  force,  and  agreed  to  establish  a 
religious  peace,  independent  of  any  action  of  the  Pope  and  council. 
The  "  Treaty  of  Passau,"  as  it  was  called,  allowed  freedom  of  wor- 
ship to  all  who  accepted  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  postponed 
other  questions  to  the  decision  of  a  German  diet.  The  emperor  at 
first  refused  to  subscribe  to  the  treaty,  but  when  Maurice  began  to 
renew  hostilities  there  was  no  other  course  left.  The  French  in 
Lorraine  and  the  Turks  in  Hungary  were  making  rapid  advances, 
and  it  was  no  time  to  assert  his  lost  despotism  over  the  empire. 

With  the  troops  which  the  princes  now  agreed  to  furnish, 
the  emperor  marched  into  France,  and  in  October,  1552,  arrived 
before  Metz,  which  he  besieged  until  the  following  January.  Then, 
with  his  army  greatly  reduced  by  sickness  and  hardship,  he  raised 
the  siege  and  marched  away,  to  continue  the  war  in  other  quarters. 
But  it  was  four  years  before  the  quarrel  with  France  came  to  an 
end,  and  during  this  time  the  Protestant  states  of  Germany  had 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  imperial  power.  The  Margrave  Albert 
of  Brandenburg,  who  was  on  the  emperor's  side,  attempted  to 
carry  fire  and  sword  through  their  territories,  in  order  to  pay  him- 
self for  his  military  services.  After  wasting,  plundering,  and  com- 
mitting shocking  barbarities  in  Saxony  and  Franconia  he  was 
defeated  by  Maurice  in  July,  1553.  The  latter  fell  in  the  moment 
of  victory,  giving  his  life  in  expiation  of  his  former  apostasy.  The 
greater  part  of  Saxony,  nevertheless,  has  remained  in  the  hands  of 
his  descendants  to  this  day,  while  the  descendants  of  John  Frederick, 
although  representing  the  elder  line,  possess  only  the  little  princi- 
palities of  Thuringia,  to  each  of  which  the  Saxon  name  is  prefixed, 
as  in  Saxe-Weimar  and  Saxe-Gotha. 

Charles  V.,  who  saw  his  ambitious  plans  for  the  government  of 
the  world  failing  everywhere,  and  whose  bodily  strength  was  fail- 
ing also,  left  Germany  in  disgust,  commissioning  his  brother  Fer- 


PROTESTANTISM  «69 

1555-1556 

dinand  to  call  a  diet,  in  accordance  with  the  stipulations  of  the 
Treaty  of  Passau.  The  diet  met  at  Augsburg,  and,  in  spite  of  the 
violent  opposition  of  the  Papal  legate,  on  September  25,  1555, 
concluded  the  Treaty  of  Religious  Peace  which  finally  gave  rest 
to  Germany,  The  Protestant  princes  who  followed  the  Augsburg 
Confession  received  religious  freedom,  perfect  equality  before 
the  law,  and  the  undisturbed  possession  of  the  church  property 
which  had  fallen  into  their  hands.  In  other  respects  their  priv- 
ileges were  not  equal.  By  a  clause  called  the  "  Ecclesiastical  Reser- 
vation," it  was  ordered  that  when  a  Catholic  bishop  or  abbot 
became  Protestant  he  should  give  up  land  and  title  in  order  that  the 
church  might  lose  none  of  its  possessions.  The  rights  and  con- 
sciences of  the  people  were  so  little  considered  that  they  were  not 
allowed  to  change  their  faith  unless  the  ruling  prince  changed  his. 
The  doctrine  was  asserted  that  religion  was  an  affair  of  the  gov- 
ernment— that  is,  that  he  to  whom  belonged  the  rule  possessed 
the  right  to  choose  the  people's  faith.  In  accordance  with  this  law 
the  population  of  the  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine  was  afterward  com- 
pelled to  be  alternately  Catholic  and  Protestant,  four  times  in 
succession!  But  it  was  provided  also  that  any  subject,  who  did 
not  agree  with  the  faith  of  his  ruling  prince  and  was  unwilling  to 
conform  to  the  state  church,  had  the  right  to  emigrate  with  all 
his  belongings  to  a  territory  whose  prince  believed  as  he  himself  did. 

The  Treaty  of  Augsburg  did  not  include  the  followers  of 
Zwingli  and  Calvin,  who  were  getting  to  be  quite  numerous  in 
southern  and  western  Germany;  they  were  left  without  any  recog- 
nized rights.  This  was  one  of  the  elements  of  weakness  in  this 
Religious  Peace  of  Augsburg,  for  the  Calvinists  were  bound  to 
agitate  and  cause  disturbance  until  they  too  were  given  the  same 
legal  recognition  as  the  Lutheran  adherents  of  the  Confession  of 
Augsburg.  The  Pope  rejected  and  condemned  this  peace,  but 
without  the  least  effect  upon  the  German  Catholics,  who  were  no 
less  desirious  of  peace  than  the  Protestants.  Moreover,  their  hopes 
of  a  final  triumph  over  the  latter  were  greatly  increased  by  the  zeal 
and  activity  of  the  Jesuits,  who  had  been  accepted  and  commissioned 
by  the  Church  of  Rome  fifteen  years  before,  and  who  were  rapidly 
increasing  in  numbers,  and  professed  to  have  made  the  suppression 
of  Protestant  doctrines  their  chief  task. 

This  treaty  was  the  last  political  act  of  Charles  V.'s  reign. 
One  month  later,  to  a  day,  he  formally  conferred  on  his  son,  Philip 


«(J0  GERMANY 

1556-1563 

II.,  at  Brussels,  the  government  of  the  Netherlands,  and  on 
January  15,  1556,  resigned  to  him  the  crowns  of  Spain  and 
Naples.  He  then  sailed  for  Spain,  where  he  retired  to  the  mon- 
astery of  St.  Just  and  lived  for  two  years  longer  as  an  imperial 
monk.  He  was  the  first  monarch  of  his  time  and  he  made  Spain 
the  leading  nation  of  the  world :  his  immense  energy,  his  boundless 
ambition,  and  his  cold,  calculating  brain  reestablished  his  power 
again  and  again,  when  it  seemed  on  the  point  of  giving  way;  but 
he  died  at  last  without  having  accomplished  the  two  chief  aims 
of  his  life — the  reunion  of  all  Christendom  under  the  Pope  and 
the  union  of  Germany  with  the  Spanish  Empire.  The  German 
people,  following  the  leaders  who  had  risen  out  of  their  own  midst 
— Luther,  Melanchthon,  Reuchlin,  and  Zwingli — defeated  the  first 
of  his  aims;  the  ambitious  princes,  who  had  found  in  Charles 
V.  much  more  of  a  despot  than  they  had  bargained  for,  defeated 
the  second  of  the  emperor's  wishes. 

The  German  diet  did  not  meet  until  March,  1558,  when  Fer- 
dinand of  Austria  was  elected  and  crowned  emperor,  at  Frankfort. 
Although  a  Catholic,  he  had  always  endeavored  to  protect  the 
Protestants  from  the  extreme  measures  which  Charles  V.  attempted 
to  enforce,  and  he  faithfully  observed  the  Treaty  of  Augsburg. 
He  even  allowed  the  Protestant  form  of  the  sacrament  and  the 
marriage  of  priests  in  Austria,  which  brought  upon  him  the  con- 
demnation of  the  Pope.  Immediately  after  the  diet  a  meeting  of 
Protestant  princes  was  held  at  Frankfort,  for  the  purpose  of  settling 
certain  differences  of  opinion  which  were  not  only  disturbing  the 
Lutherans,  but  also  tending  to  prevent  any  unity  of  action  between 
them  and  the  Swiss  Protestants.  Melanchthon  did  his  utmost  to 
restore  harmony,  but  without  success.  He  died  in  1560,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-four,  and  Calvin  four  years  afterward,  the  last  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Reformation. 

On  December  4,  1563,  the  Council  of  Trent  finally  adjourned, 
eighteen  years  after  it  first  came  together.  The  attempts  of  a 
portion  of  the  prelates  composing  it  to  reform  and  purify  the 
Catholic  Church  had  been  almost  wholly  thwarted  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Popes.  It  adopted  a  series  of  articles,  to  each  one 
of  which  was  attached  an  anathema,  cursing  all  who  refused  to 
accept  it.  They  contained  the  doctrines  of  priestly  celibacy,  purga- 
tory, masses  for  the  dead,  veneration  of  saints,  pictures,  and  relics, 
absolution,  fasts,  and  censorship  of  books — thus  making  an  eternal 


PROTESTANTISM  «61 

1583 

chasm  between  Catholicism  and  Protestantism.  At  the  close  of 
the  council  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine  cried  out :  "  Accursed  be  all 
heretics !  "  and  all  present  answered :  "  Accursed !  accursed !  "  until 
the  building  rang.  In  Italy,  Spain,  and  Poland  the  articles 
were  accepted  at  once,  but  the  Catholics  in  France,  Germany,  and 
Hungary  were  dissatisfied  with  many  of  the  declarations,  and  the 
church  in  those  countries  was  compelled  to  overlook  a  great  deal 
of  quiet  disobedience. 

At  this  time,  although  the  Catholics  had  a  majority  in  the 
diet  (since  there  were  nearly  one  hundred  priestly  members),  the 
great  majority  of  the  German  people  had  become  Protestants.  In 
all  northern  Germany,  except  Westphalia,  very  few  Catholic  con- 
gregations were  left;  even  the  archbishops  of  Bremen  and  Magde- 
burg, and  the  bishops  of  Liibeck,  Verden,  and  Halberstadt,  had 
joined  the  Reformation.  In  the  priestly  territories  of  Cologne, 
Treves,  Mayence,  Worms,  and  Strasburg  the  population  was  di- 
vided ;  the  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine,  Baden,  and  Wiirtemberg  were 
almost  entirely  Protestant,  and  even  in  Upper  Austria  and  Styria 
the  Catholics  were  in  a  minority.  Bavaria  was  the  mainstay  of 
Rome:  her  princes,  of  the  House  of  Wittelsbach,  were  the  most 
zealous  and  obedient  champions  of  the  Pope  in  all  Germany.  The 
Catholic  Church,  however,  had  not  given  up  the  struggle :  she  was 
quietly  and  shrewdly  preparing  for  one  more  desperate  effort  to 
recover  her  lost  ground,  and  the  Protestants,  instead  of  preceiving 
the  danger  and  uniting  themselves  more  closely,  were  quarreling 
among  themselves  concerning  theological  questions  upon  which 
they  have  not  yet  agreed. 

There  could  be  no  better  evidence  that  the  reign  of  Charles 
V.  had  weakened  instead  of  strengthening  the  German  empire 
than  the  losses  and  humiliations  which  immediately  followed. 
Ferdinand  I.  gave  up  half  of  Hungary  to  Sultan  Suleiman,  and 
purchased  the  right  to  rule  the  other  half  by  an  annual  payment 
of  300,cxD0  ducats.  About  the  same  time  the  emperor's  lack  of 
power  and  the  selfishness  of  the  Hanseatic  cities  occasioned  a 
much  more  important  loss.  The  provinces  on  the  eastern  shore  of 
the  Baltic,  which  had  been  governed  by  the  Order  of  the  Brothers 
of  the  Sword  after  the  downfall  of  the  German  Order,  were  overrun 
and  terribly  devastated  by  the  Czar  Ivan  of  Russia.  The  Grand 
Master  of  the  Order  appealed  to  Liibeck  and  Hamburg  for  aid, 
which  was  refused;  then,  in  1559,  he  called  upon  the  diet  of  the 


262  GERMANY 

1563-1567 

German  Empire  and  received  vague  promises  of  assistance,  which 
had  no  practical  value.  Then,  driven  to  desperation,  he  turned  to 
Poland,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  all  of  which  countries  took  instant 
advantage  of  his  necessities.  The  Baltic  provinces  were  defended 
against  Russia — and  lost  to  Germany.  The  Swedes  and  Danes 
took  Esthonia,  the  Poles  took  Livonia,  and  only  the  little  province 
of  Courland  remained  as  an  independent  state,  the  Grand  Master 
becoming  its  first  duke. 

Ferdinand  I.  died  in  1564,  and  was  immediately  succeeded  by 
his  eldest  son,  Maximilian  II.  The  latter  was  in  the  prime  of  life, 
already  popular  for  his  goodness  of  heart,  his  engaging  manners, 
and  his  moderation  and  justice.  The  Protestants  cherished  great 
hopes,  at  first,  that  he  would  openly  join  them;  but,  although  he  so 
favored  and  protected  them  in  Austria  that  Vienna  almost  became 
a  Protestant  city,  he  refused  to  leave  the  Catholic  Church,  and  even 
sent  his  son  Rudolf  to  be  educated  in  Spain,  under  the  bitter  and 
bigoted  influence  of  Philip  II.  His  daughter  was  married  to 
Charles  IX.  of  France,  and  when  he  heard  of  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew  (in  August,  1572)  he  cried  out:  "Would  to  God 
that  my  son-in-law  had  asked  counsel  of  me  1  I  would  so  faithfully 
have  persuaded  him  as  a  father,  that  he  certainly  would  never 
have  done  this  thing."  He  also  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  soften 
the  persecutions  of  Philip  II.'s  reign  in  the  Netherlands. 

Maximilian  II.'s  reign  of  twelve  years  was  quiet  and  unevent- 
ful. Only  one  disturbance  of  the  internal  peace  occurred,  and  it 
is  worthy  of  note  as  the  last  feud  after  so  many  centuries  of  free 
fighting  between  the  princes.  An  independent  knight,  William 
von  Grumbach,  having  been  dispossessed  of  his  lands  by  the  Bishop 
of  Wiirzburg,  waylaid  the  latter,  who  was  slain  in  the  fight  which 
occurred.  Grumbach  fled  to  France,  but  soon  allied  himself  with 
several  dissatisfied  Franconian  knights,  and  finally  persuaded  John 
Frederick  of  Saxony  to  espouse  his  cause.  The  latter  was  outlawed 
by  the  emperor,  yet  he  obstinately  determined  to  resist,  in  the  hope 
of  wresting  the  Electorate  of  Saxony  from  the  younger  line  and 
restoring  it  to  his  own  family.  He  was  besieged  by  the  imperial 
army  in  Gotha,  in  1567,  and  taken  prisoner.  Grumbach  was  tor- 
tured and  executed,  and  John  Frederick  kept  in  close  confinement 
until  his  death,  twenty-eight  years  afterward.  His  sons,  however, 
were  allowed  to  succeed  him.  The  severity  with  which  this  breach 
of  the  internal  peace  was  punished  put  an  end  forever  to  petty 


PROTESTANTISM  263 

1567-1576 

wars  in  Germany :  the  measures  adopted  by  the  diet  of  1495,  under 
Maxmilian  L,  were  at  last  recognized  as  binding  laws. 

The  revolt  of  the  Netherlands,  which  broke  out  immediately 
after  Maxmilian  11. 's  accession  to  the  throne,  had  little,  if  any, 
political  relation  to  Germany.  Under  Charles  V.  the  Netherlands 
had  been  quite  separated  from  any  connection  with  the  German 
Empire,  and  he  was  free  to  introduce  the  Inquisition  there  and  perse- 
cute the  Protestants  with  all  the  severity  demanded  by  Rome. 
Philip  II.  followed  the  same  policy:  the  torture,  fire,  and  sword 
were  employed  against  the  people  until  they  arose  against  the  in- 
tolerable Spanish  rule,  and  entered  upon  that  famous  eighty  years' 
struggle  which  ended  in  establishing  the  independence  of  Holland. 

At  a  diet  in  1576,  where  he  had  declared  his  policy  in  religious 
matters  to  be  simply  the  enforcement  of  the  Treaty  of  Augsburg, 
Maximilian  II.  suddenly  fell  dead.  According  to  the  custom  which 
they  had  now  followed  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  of  keeping 
the  imperial  dignity  in  the  House  of  Hapsburg,  the  electors  immedi- 
ately chose  his  son,  Rudolf  II.,  an  avowed  enemy  of  the  Protes- 
tants. Unlike  his  father,  his  nature  was  cold,  stern,  and  despotic: 
he  was  gloomy,  unsocial,  and  superstitious,  and  the  circumstance 
that  he  aided  and  encouraged  the  great  astronomers,  Kepler  and 
Tycho  de  Brahe,  was  probably  owing  to  his  love  for  astrology  and 
alchemy.  He  was  subject  to  sudden  and  violent  attacks  of  passion, 
which  were  followed  by  periods  of  complete  indifference  to  his 
duties.  Like  Frederick  III.,  a  hundred  years  before,  he  concerned 
himself  with  the  affairs  of  Austria,  his  direct  inheritance,  rather 
than  with  those  of  the  empire;  and  thus,  although  internal  wars 
had  been  suppressed,  he  encouraged  the  dissensions  in  religion  and 
politics  which  were  gradually  bringing  on  a  more  dreadful  war 
than  Germany  had  ever  known  before. 

One  of  Rudolf  II.'s  first  measures  was  to  take  from  the 
Austrian  Protestants  the  right  of  worship  which  his  father  had 
allowed  them.  He  closed  their  churches,  removed  them  from  all 
the  offices  they  held,  and,  justifying  himself  by  the  Treaty  of 
Augsburg  that  whoever  ruled  the  people  should  choose  their  re- 
ligious faith,  did  his  best  to  make  Austria  wholly  Catholic.  Many 
Catholic  princes  and  priests,  emboldened  by  his  example,  declared 
that  the  articles  promulgated  by  the  Council  of  Trent  abolished  the 
Treaty  of  Augsburg  and  gave  them  the  right  to  put  down  heresy 
by  force.    When  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  became  a  Protestant 


264  GERMANY 

1576-1600 

and  married,  although  the  larger  part  of  the  population  in  the 
archbishopric  had  been  converted  to  Protestantism,  the  German 
Catholics,  rightly  declared  that  this  was  exactly  the  kind  of  case 
which  the  Ecclesiastical  Reservation  of  1555  was  intended  to 
cover ;  they  naturally  said  that  the  archbishopric  should  be  **  re- 
served "  for  a  good  Catholic.  When  the  Protestant  population 
made  some  objection  these  German  Catholics  called  upon  Alex- 
ander of  Parma,  who  came  from  the  Netherlands  with  a 
Spanish  army,  took  possession  of  the  territory,  and  installed  a 
new  Catholic  archbishop,  without  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
Protestant  majority  of  Germany.  Thus  the  hate  and  bitterness  on 
both  sides  increased  from  year  to  year,  without  culminating  in 
open  hostilities. 

The  history  of  Germany,  from  the  accession  of  Rudolf  II. 
to  the  end  of  the  century,  is  marked  by  no  political  event  of  im- 
portance. Spain  was  fully  occupied  in  her  hopeless  attempt  to 
subdue  the  Netherlands :  in  France  Henry  of  Navarre  was  fighting 
the  Duke  of  Guise;  Hungary  and  Austria  wei'e  left  to  check  the 
advance  of  the  Turkish  invasion,  and  nearly  all  Germany  enjoyed 
peace  for  upward  of  fifty  years.  During  this  time  population  and 
wealth  greatly  increased,  and  life  in  the  cities  and  at  courts  became 
luxurious  and  more  or  less  immoral.  The  arts  and  sciences  began 
to  flourish,  the  people  grew  in  knowledge,  yet  the  spirit  out  of  which 
the  Reformation  sprang  seemed  almost  dead.  The  elements  of 
good  and  evil  were  strangely  mixed  together — intelligence  and 
superstition,  piety  and  bigotry,  civilization  and  barbarism,  were 
found  side  by  side.  As  formerly  in  her  history,  it  appeared  nearly 
impossible  for  Germany  to  grow  by  a  gradual  and  healthful  develop- 
ment; her  condition  must  be  bad  enough  to  bring  on  a  violent 
convulsion  before  it  could  be  improved. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
In  spite  of  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country,  there  was  a 
general  feeling  among  the  people  that  evil  days  were  coming;  but 
the  most  desponding  prophet  could  hardly  have  predicted  worse 
misfortunes  than  they  were  called  upon  to  suffer  during  the  next 
fifty  years. 


Chapter  XXVII 

BEGINNING   OF   THE   THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR 
1 600- 1 634 

THE  beginning-  of  the  seventeenth  century  found  the 
Protestants  in  Germany  still  divided.  The  followers  of 
Zwingli,  it  is  true,  had  accepted  the  Augsburg  Confession 
as  the  shortest  means  of  acquiring  freedom  of  worship;  but  the 
Calvinists,  who  were  now  rapidly  increasing,  were  not  willing  to 
take  this  step,  nor  were  the  Lutherans  any  more  tolerant  toward 
them  than  at  the  beginning.  The  Dutch,  in  winning  their  in- 
dependence from  Spain,  gave  the  Calvinistic,  or,  as  it  was  called  in 
Germany,  the  Reformed  Church,  a  new  political  importance;  and 
it  was  not  long  before  the  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine,  Baden,  Hesse- 
Cassel,  and  Anhalt  also  joined  it.  The  Protestants  were  split  into 
two  strong  and  unfriendly  sects,  at  the  very  time  when  the  Catholics, 
under  the  teaching  of  the  Jesuits,  were  uniting  against  them. 

Duke  Ferdinand  of  Styria,  a  young  cousin  of  Rudolf  II.,  be- 
gan the  struggle.  Styria  was  at  that  time  Protestant,  and  refused 
to  change  its  faith  at  the  command  of  the  duke,  whereupon  he 
visited  every  part  of  the  land  with  an  armed  force,  closed  the 
churches,  burned  the  hymn-books  and  Bibles,  and  banished  every- 
one who  was  not  willing  to  become  a  Catholic  on  the  spot.  He 
openly  declared  that  it  was  better  to  rule  over  a  desert  than  a  land  of 
heretics.  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  followed  his  example.  In 
1607  he  seized  the  free  Protestant  city  of  Donauworth,  on  the 
Danube,  on  account  of  some  quarrel  between  its  inhabitants  and  a 
monastery,  and  held  it,  in  violation  of  all  laws  of  the  empire.  A 
protest  made  to  the  diet  on  account  of  this  act  was  of  no  avail, 
since  a  majority  of  the  members  were  Catholics.  The  Protestants 
of  southern  Germany  formed  a  "  Union  "  for  mutual  protection, 
in  May,  1608,  with  Frederick  IV.  of  the  Palatinate  at  their  head; 
but,  as  they  were  mostly  of  the  Reformed  Church,  they  received 
little  sympathy  or  support  from  the  Protestant  states  in  the  north. 
Maximilian  of  Bavaria  then  established  a  "  Catholic  League," 

265 


266  GERMANY 

1608-1614 

in  opposition,  relying  on  the  assistance  of  Spain,  while  the  "  Prot- 
estant Union  "  relied  on  that  of  Henry  IV.  of  France.  Both  sides 
beg^n  to  arm,  and  they  would  soon  have  proceeded  to  open  hostili- 
ties, when  a  dispute  of  much  greater  importance  diverted  their 
attention  to  the  north  of  Germany.  This  was  the  so-called  "  Succes- 
sion of  Cleves."  Duke  John  William  of  Cleves,  who  governed  the 
former  separate  dukedoms  of  Jiilich,  Cleves,  and  Berg,  and  the 
countships  of  Ravensberg  and  Mark,  embracing  a  large  extent  of 
territory  on  both  sides  of  the  Lower  Rhine,  died  in  1609  without 
leaving  a  direct  heir.  He  had  been  a  Catholic,  but  his  people  were 
Protestants.  John  Sigismund,  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  Wolf- 
gang William  of  Neuburg,  both  relatives  on  the  female  side,  claimed 
the  splendid  inheritance;  and  when  it  became  evident  that  the 
Catholic  interest  meant  to  secure  it,  they  quickly  united  their  forces 
and  took  possession.  The  emperor  then  sent  the  Archduke  Leopold 
of  Hapsburg  to  hold  the  disputed  territories  in  the  name  of  the 
emperor  as  feudal  overlord  of  all  Germany  until  the  succession 
question  could  be  satisfactorily  settled  before  the  courts.  There- 
upon the  Protestant  Union  made  an  instant  alliance  with  Henry 
IV.  of  France,  who  was  engaged  in  organizing  an  army  for  its 
aid,  when  he  fell  by  the  dagger  of  the  assassin,  Ravaillac,  in  16 10. 
This  dissolved  the  alliance,  and  the  "  Union  "  and  "  League,"  find- 
ing themselves  agreed  in  opposing  the  creation  of  another  Austrian 
state  on  the  Lower  Rhine,  concluded  peace  before  any  serious  fight- 
ing had  taken  place  between  them. 

The  two  claimants  to  the  succession  adopted  a  similar  policy. 
Wolfgang  William  became  a  Catholic,  married  the  sister  of  Maxi- 
milian of  Bavaria,  and  so  brought  the  "  League  "  to  support  him, 
and  the  Elector  John  Sigismund  became  a  Calvinist  (which  almost 
excited  a  rebellion  among  the  Brandenburg  Lutherans),  in  order  to 
get  the  support  of  the  "  Union."  The  former  was  assisted  by 
Spanish  troops  from  Flanders,  the  latter  by  Dutch  troops  from 
Holland,  and  the  war  was  carried  on  until  16 14,  when  it  was  settled 
by  a  division  which  gave  John  Sigismund  the  lion's  share — Cleves, 
Mark,  and  Ravensberg. 

Meanwhile,  the  Emperor  Rudolf  was  becoming  so  old,  so 
whimsical,  and  so  useless  that  in  1606  the  princes  of  the  House 
of  Hapsburg  held  a  meeting,  declared  him  incapable  of  governing, 
"  on  account  of  occasional  imbecilities  of  mind,"  and  appointed  his 
brother  Matthias  regent  for  Austria,  Hungary,  and  Moravia.    The 


THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  267 

1601-1617 

emperor  refused  to  yield,  but  with  the  help  of  the  nobility,  who 
were  mostly  Protestants,  Matthias  maintained  his  claim.  Matthias 
was  obliged,  in  return,  to  grant  religious  freedom,  which  so  en- 
couraged the  oppressed  Protestants  in  Bohemia  that  they  demanded 
similar  rights  from  the  emperor.  In  his  helpless  situation  Rudolf 
gave  way  to  their  demand  and  issued  a  royal  charter  {Majestdts- 
brief)  by  which  freedom  of  conscience  was  secured  to  almost  all 
Protestants  and  freedom  of  worship  granted  on  all  crown  lands; 
but  on  private  estates  and  in  the  towns  the  consent  of  the  land- 
owner and  the  town  authorities  was  necessary  to  the  erection  of  any 
church  or  the  establishment  of  any  religious  worship.  An  arrange- 
ment so  one-sided  as  this,  by  which  the  king  was  obliged  to  grant 
freedom  of  worship  while  his  subjects  were  not,  was  thoroughly 
unpractical.  Difficulties  at  once  broke  out  about  its  interpretation. 
Rudolf  soon  became  alarmed  at  the  increase  of  the  heretics,  and 
tried  to  take  back  his  concession.  The  Bohemians  then  called 
Matthias  to  their  assistance,  and  in  1611  Rudolf  lost  his  remaining 
kingdom  and  his  favorite  residence  of  Prague.  As  he  looked  upon 
the  city  for  the  last  time  he  cried  out :  "  May  the  vengeance  of 
God  overtake  thee,  and  my  curse  light  on  thee  and  all  Bohemia !  " 
In  less  than  a  year,  January  20,  161 2,  he  died. 

Matthias  was  elected  Emperor  of  Germany  as  a  matter  of 
course.  The  House  of  Hapsburg  was  now  the  strongest  German 
power  which  represented  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  the  Catholic 
majority  in  the  diet  secured  to  it  the  imperial  dignity  then  and 
thenceforward.  The  Protestants,  however,  voted  also  for  Matthias, 
for  the  reason  that  he  had  already  shown  a  tolerant  policy  toward 
their  brethren  in  Austria,  Hungary,  and  Bohemia.  His  first  meas- 
ures, as  emperor,  justified  this  view  of  his  character.  He  held  a 
diet  at  Ratisbon  for  the  purpose  of  settling  the  existing  differences 
between  the  two,  but  nothing  was  accomplished.  The  Protestants, 
finding  that  they  would  be  outvoted,  withdrew  in  a  body  and  thus 
broke  up  the  diet.  Matthias  next  endeavored  to  dissolve  both  the 
"  Union  "  and  the  "  League,"  in  which  he  was  only  partially  suc- 
cessful. At  the  same  time  his  rule  in  Hungary  was  menaced  by  a 
revolt  of  the  Transylvanian  chief,  Bethlen  Gabor,  who  was  assisted 
by  the  Turks.  He  grew  weary  of  his  task,  and  was  easily  persuaded 
by  the  other  princes  of  his  house  to  adopt  his  nephew,  Duke  Fer- 
dinand of  Styria,  as  his  successor,  in  the  year  161 7,  having  no 
children  of  his  own. 


268  GERMANY 

1617*1619 

Ferdinand,  who  had  been  carefully  educated  by  the  Jesuits 
for  the  part  which  he  was  afterward  to  play,  and  whose  violent 
suppression  of  the  Protestant  faith  in  Styria  made  him  acceptable 
to  all  the  German  Catholics,  was  a  man  of  great  energy  and  force 
of  character.  He  was  stern,  bigoted,  cruel,  yet  shrewd,  cunning, 
and  apparently  conciliatory  when  he  found  it  necessary  to  be  so, 
resembling  in  both  respects  his  predecessor,  Charles  V.  of  Spain. 
In  return  for  being  chosen  by  the  Bohemians  to  succeed  Matthias  as 
king,  he  confirmed  them  in  the  religious  freedom  which  they  had 
extorted  from  Rudolf  II.,  and  then  joined  the  emperor  in  an  expe- 
dition to  Hungary,  leaving  Bohemia  to  be  governed  in  the  interim 
by  a  council  of  ten,  seven  Catholics  and  three  Protestants. 

The  first  thing  that  happened  was  the  destruction  of  two  or 
three  Protestant  churches  by  Catholic  bishops.  The  Bohemian 
Protestants  appealed  immediately  to  the  Emperor  Matthias  and 
to  their  royal  charter;  they  received  no  satisfaction,  but  only 
threats.  Thereupon  they  rose  in  Prague,  stormed  the  council  hall, 
seized  two  of  the  councilors  and  their  secretary  and  hurled  them 
out  of  the  windows.  Although  the  three  men  fell  a  distance  of 
some  seventy  feet,  not  one  was  very  seriously  injured;  they  all 
easily  made  their  escape.  It  seemed  at  the  time  as  though  a  miracle 
had  happened;  but  it  appears  that  they  fell  on  a  soft  dungheap. 
This  event  happened  on  May  23,  1618,  and  after  such  long  chron- 
icles of  violence  and  slaughter  the  deed  seemed  of  slight  importance. 
In  reality,  it  was  one  of  the  most  important  and  irrevocable  acts  in 
German  history ;  it  was  the  signal  for  the  beginning  of  the  terrible 
Thirty  Years'  War. 

Although  the  Protestants  had  only  three  councilors  out  of 
ten,  they  were  largely  in  the  majority  in  Bohemia.  They  knew 
what  retaliation  the  outbreak  in  Prague  would  bring  upon  them, 
and  anticipated  it  by  making  the  revolution  general.  They  chose 
Count  Thum  as  their  leader,  overturned  the  imperial  government, 
banished  the  Jesuits  from  the  country,  and  entered  into  relations 
with  the  Protestant  nobles  of  Austria  and  the  insurgent  chief 
Bethlen  Gabor  in  Hungary.  The  Emperor  Matthias  was  willing 
to  compromise  the  difficulty,  but  Ferdinand,  stimulated  by  the 
Jesuits,  declared  for  war.  He  sent  two  small  armies  into  Bohemia, 
with  a  proclamation  calling  upon  the  people  to  submit.  The  Prot- 
estants of  the  north  were  at  last  aroused  from  their  lethargy. 
Count  Mansfeld  marched  with  a  force  of  4000  men  to  aid  the 


THIRTY     YEARS'     WAR 


269 


1619 

Bohemians,  and  30CX)  more  came  from  Silesia;  the  imperial  army 
was  defeated  and  driven  back  to  the  Danube.  At  this  juncture  the 
Emperor  Matthias  died,  on  May  20,  16 19. 

Ferdinand  lost  not  a  day  in  taking  the  power  into  his  own 
hands.  But  Austria  threatened  revolution,  Hungary  had  made 
common  cause  with  Bohemia,  Count  Thurn  was  marching  on 
Vienna,  and  he  was  without  an  army  to  support  his  claims.  Count 
Thurn,  however,  instead  of  attacking  Vienna,  encamped  outside 
the  walls  and  began  to  negotiate.  Ferdinand,  hard  pressed  by  the 
demands  of  the  Austrian  Protestants,  was  on  the  very  point  of 


yielding — in  fact,  a  member  of  a  deputation  of  noblemen  had  seized 
him  by  the  coat — when  trumpets  were  heard,  and  a  body  of  500 
cavalry,  which  had  reached  the  city  without  being  intercepted  by 
the  besiegers,  appeared  before  the  palace.  This  enabled  him  to 
defend  the  city,  until  the  defeat  of  Count  Mansfeld  by  another 
portion  of  his  army  which  had  entered  Bohemia  compelled  Count 
Thurn  to  raise  the  siege.  Then  Ferdinand  hastened  to  Frank- 
fort to  look  after  his  election  as  emperor  by  the  diet,  which  met  on 
August  28,  1 6 19. 

It  seems  surprising  that  now,  knowing  his  character  and  de- 
signs, the  three  electors  who  were  Protestants  should  have  voted 


270 


GERMANY 


1619-1621 

for  him.  It  has  been  charged,  but  without  any  clear  evidence,  that 
they  were  bribed;  it  is  possible  that  Ferdinand  misled  them  by 
promises  of  peace  and  justice;  but  it  is  also  very  likely  that  they 
imagined  their  own  sovereignty  depended  on  sustaining  every  tra- 
dition of  the  empire.  The  people,  of  course,  had  not  yet  acquired 
any  rights  which  a  prince  felt  himself  called  upon  to  respect. 

Ferdinand  was  elected  and  properly  crowned  in  the  cathedral 
at  Frankfort  as  Ferdinand  II.  The  Bohemians,  who  were  entitled 
to  one  of  the  seven  electoral  votes  in  the  diet,  claimed  that  the 
election  was  not  binding  upon  them,  and  chose  Frederick  V.  of  the 
Palatinate  as  their  king,  in  the  hope  that  the  Protestant  "  Union  " 
would  rally  to  their  support.  It  was  a  fatal  choice  and  a  false  hope. 
When  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  at  the  head  of  the  Catholic  "  League," 
took  the  field  for  the  emperor,  the  "  Union "  weakly  withdrew. 
Frederick  V.  went  to  Bohemia,  was  crowned,  and  idled  his  time 
away  in  fantastic  diversions  for  one  winter,  while  Ferdinand  was 
calling  Spain  to  attack  the  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine,  and  borrowing 
Cossacks  from  Poland  to  put  down  his  Protestant  subjects  in 
Austria.  The  emperor  assured  the  Protestant  princes  that  the  war 
should  be  confined  to  Bohemia,  and  one  of  them,  the  Elector  John 
George  of  Saxony,  a  Lutheran,  openly  went  over  to  his  side  in  order 
to  defeat  Frederick  V.,  a  Calvinist.  The  Bohemians  fell  back  to  the 
walls  of  Prague  before  the  armies  of  the  emperor  and  Bavaria, 
and  there,  on  the  White  Mountain,  a  battle  of  an  hour's  duration, 
in  November,  1620,  decided  the  fate  of  the  country.  The  turbulent 
Bohemian  nobles  were  scattered  in  all  directions;  Frederick  V. 
left  Prague  never  to  return;  and  Spanish,  Italian,  and  Hungarian 
troops  occupied  the  country. 

Ferdinand  II.  acted  as  might  have  been  expected  from  his 
despotic  and  bigoted  nature.  The  8000  Cossacks  which  he  had 
borrowed  from  his  brother-in-law.  King  Sigismund  of  Poland,  had 
already  closed  all  Protestant  churches  and  suppressed  freedom  of 
worship  in  Austria ;  he  now  applied  the  same  measures  to  Bohemia, 
but  in  a  more  violent  and  bloody  form.  Twenty-seven  of  the  chief 
Protestant  nobles  were  beheaded  at  Prague  in  one  day ;  thousands 
of  families  were  stripped  of  all  their  property  and  banished;  the 
Protestant  churches  were  given  to  the  Catholics,  the  Jesuits  took 
possession  of  the  university  and  the  schools,  until  finally,  as  a  his- 
torian says,  "  the  quiet  of  a  sepulcher  settled  over  Bohemia."  The 
Protestant  faith  was  practically  obliterated  from  all  the  Austrian 


THIRTY     YEARS'     WAR  211 

1621-1622 

realm  with  the  exception  of  a  few  scattered  congregations  in  Hun- 
gary and  Transylvania.  Thus  was  the  will  of  one  man  allowed  to 
destroy  the  work  of  a  hundred  years,  to  crush  both  the  faith  and 
freedom  of  a  prosperous  people,  and  to  plunder  them  of  their  best 
earnings  and  make  them  ignorant  slaves  for  two  centuries  more. 
The  property  which  was  seized  by  Ferdinand  H.  in  Bohemia  alone 
was  estimated  at  forty  millions  of  florins!  And  the  strength  of 
Germany,  which  was  Protestant,  looked  on  and  saw  all  this  happen ! 
Only  the  common  people  of  Austria  arose  against  the  tyrant,  and 
gallantly  struggled  for  months,  at  first  under  the  command  of  a 
farmer  named  Stephen  Fadinger,  and,  when  he  was  slain  in  the 
moment  of  victory,  under  an  unknown  young  hero,  who  had  no 
other  name  than  "  the  Student."  The  latter  defeated  the  Bavarian 
army,  resisted  the  famous  Austrian  general,  Pappenheim,  in  many 
battles,  and  at  last  fell,  after  most  of  his  followers  had  fallen,  with- 
out leaving  his  name  to  history. 

The  fate  of  Austria  from  that  day  to  this  was  now  sealed. 
Both  parties — the  Catholics,  headed  by  Ferdinand  H.,  and  the 
Protestants,  without  any  head — next  turned  to  the  Palatinate  of 
the  Rhine,  where  a  Spanish  army,  sent  from  Flanders,  was  wasting 
and  plundering  in  the  name  of  the  emperor.  Count  Ernest  of 
Mansfeld  and  Prince  Christian  of  Brunswick,  who  had  supported 
Frederick  V.  in  Bohemia,  endeavored  to  save  at  least  the  Palatinate 
for  him.  They  were  dashing  and  eccentric  young  generals,  whose 
personal  reputation  attracted  all  sorts  of  wild  and  lawless  characters 
to  take  service  under  them.  Mansfeld,  who  had  been  originally  a 
Catholic,  was  partly  supported  by  contributions  from  England  and 
Holland,  but  he  also  took  what  he  could  get  from  the  country 
through  which  he  marched.  Christian  of  Brunswick  was  a  fantastic 
prince  who  tried  to  imitate  the  knights  of  the  Middle  Ages,  He 
was  a  great  admirer  of  the  Countess  Elizabeth  of  the  Palatinate 
(sister  of  Charles  I.  of  England),  and  always  wore  her  glove  on 
his  helmet.  In  order  to  obtain  money  for  his  troops  he  plundered 
the  bishoprics  in  Westphalia  and  forced  the  cities  and  villages  to 
pay  him  heavy  contributions.  When  he  entered  the  cathedral  at 
Paderborn  and  saw  the  silver  statues  of  the  Apostles  around  the 
altar,  he  cried  out :  "  What  are  you  doing  here  ?  You  were  ordered 
to  go  forth  into  the  world,  but  wait  a  bit — I'll  send  you !  "  So  he 
had  them  melted  and  coined  into  dollars,  upon  which  the  words 
were  stamped :  "  Friend  of  God,  foe  of  the  priests ! "     He  after- 


272  GERMANY 

1622-1623 

ward  gave  himself  that  name;  but  the  soldiers  generally  called  him 
"  Mad  Christian." 

Against  these  two  Ferdinand  II.  send  Maximilian  of  Bavaria 
and  General  Tilly.  The  latter,  already  famous  both  for  his  mili- 
tary talent  and  his  inhumanity,  had  been  educated  by  the  Jesuits 
for  a  priest,  but  was  now  in  the  Bavarian  service.  He  was  a  small, 
lean  man,  with  a  face  almost  comical  in  its  ugliness.  His  nose  was 
like  a  parrot's  beak,  his  forehead  seamed  with  deep  wrinkles,  his 
eyes  sunk  in  their  sockets,  and  his  cheek-bones  projecting.  He 
usually  wore  a  dress  of  green  satin,  with  a  cocked  hat  and  long 
red  feather,  and  rode  a  small,  mean-looking  gray  horse. 

Early  in  1622  the  imperial  army  under  Tilly  was  defeated,  or 
at  least  checked,  by  the  united  forces  of  Mansfeld  and  Prince  Chris- 
tian. But  in  May  of  the  same  year  the  forces  of  the  latter,  with 
those  of  George  Frederick  of  Baden,  were  almost  cut  to  pieces  by 
Tilly,  at  Wimpfen.  They  retreated  into  Alsace,  where  they  burned 
and  plundered  at  will,  while  Tilly  pursued  the  same  course  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Rhine.  He  took  and  destroyed  the  cities  of 
Mannheim  and  Heidelberg,  closed  the  Protestant  churches,  banished 
the  clergymen  and  teachers,  and  supplied  their  places  with  Jesuits. 
The  invaluable  library  of  Heidelberg  was  sent  to  Pope  Gregory  XV. 
at  Rome,  and  remained  there  until  181 5,  when  a  part  of  it  came 
back  to  the  university  by  way  of  Paris. 

Frederick  V.,  who  had  fled  from  the  country,  entered  into  nego- 
tiations with  the  emperor  in  the  hope  of  retaining  the  Palatinate. 
He  dissolved  his  connection  with  Mansfeld  and  Prince  Christian, 
who  thereupon  offered  their  services  to  the  emperor  on  condition 
that  he  would  pay  their  soldiers!  Receiving  no  answer,  they 
marched  through  Lorraine  and  Flanders,  laying  waste  the  country 
as  they  went,  and  finally  took  refuge  in  Holland.  Frederick  V.'s 
humiliation  was  of  no  avail ;  none  of  the  Protestant  princes  sup- 
ported his  claim.  The  emperor  gave  his  land,  with  the  electoral 
dignity,  to  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  and  this  act,  although  a  direct 
violation  of  the  laws  which  the  German  princes  held  as  sacred,  was 
acquiesced  in  by  them  at  a  diet  held  at  Ratisbon  in  1623.  John 
George  of  Saxony,  who  saw  clearly  that  it  was  a  fatal  blow  aimed 
both  at  the  Protestants  and  at  the  rights  of  the  reigning  princes, 
was  persuaded  to  be  silent  by  the  promise  of  having  Lusatia  added 
to  Saxony. 

By  this  time  Germany  was  in  a  worse  condition  than  she  had 


THIRTY     YEARS'     WAR  «73 

1623-162S 

known  for  centuries.  The  power  of  the  Jesuits,  represented  by 
Ferdinand  II.,  his  councilors  and  generals,  was  supreme  almost 
everywhere;  the  Protestant  princes  vied  with  each  other  in  mean- 
ness, selfishness,  and  cowardice ;  the  people  were  slaughtered,  robbed, 
driven  hither  and  thither  by  both  parties :  there  seemed  to  be  neither 
faith  nor  justice  left  in  the  land.  The  other  Protestant  nations — 
England,  Holland,  Denmark,  and  Sweden — looked  on  with  dismay, 
and  even  Cardinal  Richelieu,  who  was  then  practically  the  ruler  of 
France,  was  willing  to  see  Ferdinand  II.'s  power  crippled,  though 
the  Protestants  should  gain  thereby.  England  and  Holland  assisted 
Mansfeld  and  Prince  Christian  with  money,  and  the  latter  organ- 
ized new  armies,  with  which  they  ravaged  Friesland  and  Westphalia. 
Prince  Christian  was  on  his  way  to  Bohemia  in  order  to  unite  with 
the  Hungarian  chief,  Bethlen  Gabor,  when,  on  August  6,  1623, 
he  met  Tilly  at  a  place  called  Stadtlohn,  near  Miinster,  and 
after  a  murderous  battle  which  lasted  three  days  was  utterly  de- 
feated. About  the  same  time  Mansfeld,  needing  further  support, 
went  to  England,  where  he  was  received  with  great  honor. 

Ferdinand  II.  had  in  the  meantime  concluded  a  peace  with 
Bethlen  Gabor,  and  his  authority  was  firmly  established  over  Aus- 
tria and  Bohemia.  Tilly  with  his  Bavarians  was  victorious  in 
Westphalia;  all  armed  opposition  to  the  emperor's  rule  was  at  an 
end,  yet  instead  of  declaring  peace  established  and  restoring  the 
former  order  of  the  empire,  his  agents  continued  their  work  of  sup- 
pressing religious  freedom  and  civil  rights  in  all  the  states  which 
had  been  overrun  by  the  Catholic  armies.  The  whole  empire  was 
threatened  with  the  fate  of  Austria.  Then,  at  last,  in  1625,  Bruns- 
wick, Brandenburg,  Mecklenburg,  Hamburg,  Lubeck,  and  Bremen 
formed  a  union  for  mutual  defense,  choosing  as  their  leader  King 
Christian  IV.  of  Denmark,  the  same  monarch  who  had  broken 
down  the  power  of  the  Hanseatic  League  in  the  Baltic  and  North 
seas.  Although  a  Protestant,  he  was  no  friend  to  the  north  Ger- 
man states,  but  he  energetically  united  with  them  in  the  hope  of 
being  able  to  enlarge  his  kingdom  at  their  expense. 

Christian  IV.  lost  no  time  in  making  arrangements  with  Eng- 
land and  Holland  which  enabled  both  Mansfeld  and  Prince  Chris- 
tion  of  Brunswick  to  raise  new  forces,  with  which  they  returned  to 
Germany.  Tilly,  in  order  to  intercept  them,  entered  the  territory 
of  the  states  which  had  united,  and  thus  gave  Christian  IV.  a  pre- 
text for  declaring  war.     The  latter  marched  down  from  Denmark 


fT4  GERMANY 

1625 

at  once,  but  found  no  earnest  union  among  the  states,  and  only 
7000  men  collected.  He  soon  succeeded,  however,  in  bringing  to- 
gether a  force  much  larger  than  that  commanded  by  Tilly,  and  was 
only  hindered  in  his  plan  of  immediate  action  by  a  fall  from  his 
horse,  which  crippled  him  for  six  weeks.  The  city  of  Hamelin  was 
taken,  and  Tilly  compelled  to  fall  back  behind  the  River  Weser,  but 
no  other  important  movements  took  place  during  the  year  1625. 

Ferdinand  II.  was  already  growing  jealous  of  the  increasing 
power  of  Bavaria,  and  determined  that  the  Catholic  and  imperial 
cause  should  not  be  intrusted  to  Tilly  alone.  But  he  had  little 
money,  his  own  military  force  had  been  wasted  by  the  wars  in 
Bohemia,  Austria,  and  Hungary,  and  there  was  no  other  commander 
of  sufficient  renown  to  attract  men  to  his  standard.  Yet  it  was 
necessary  that  Tilly  should  be  reinforced  as  soon  as  possible,  or  his 
scheme  of  crushing  the  whole  of  Germany,  and  laying  it,  as  a  fet- 
tered slave,  at  the  feet  of  the  Catholic  Church,  might  fail,  and  at  the 
very  moment  when  success  seemed  sure. 

In  this  emergency  a  new  man  presented  himself.  Albert  of 
Waldstein,  better  known  under  his  historical  name  of  Wallenstein, 
was  bom  at  Prague  in  1 583.  He  was  the  son  of  a  poor  Protestant 
nobleman.  As  a  youth  he  was  violent  and  unruly,  until  a  fall  from 
the  third  story  of  a  house  effected  a  sudden  change  in  his  nature. 
He  became  brooding  and  taciturn,  gave  up  his  Protestant  faith,  and 
was  educated  by  the  Jesuits  at  Olmiitz.  He  traveled  in  Spain, 
France,  and  the  Netherlands,  fought  in  Italy  against  Venice,  and 
in  Hungary  against  Bethlen  Gabor  and  the  Turks,  and  rose  to  the 
rank  of  colonel.  He  married  an  old  and  rich  widow,  and  after  her 
death  increased  his  wealth  by  a  second  marriage,  so  that  when  the 
Protestants  were  expelled  from  Bohemia  he  was  able  to  purchase 
some  sixty  of  their  confiscated  estates  at  greatly  depreciated  prices. 
Adding  these  to  that  of  Friedland,  which  he  had  received  from  the 
emperor  in  return  for  military  services,  he  possessed  a  small  princi- 
pality, lived  in  great  splendor,  and  paid  and  equipped  his  own  troops. 
He  was  first  made  Count,  and  then  Duke,  of  Friedland,  with  the 
authority  of  an  independent  prince  of  the  empire. 

Wallenstein  was  superstitious,  and  his  studies  in  astrology  gave 
him  the  belief  that  a  much  higher  destiny  awaited  him.  Here  was 
the  opportunity.  He  offered  to  raise  and  command  a  second  army 
in  the  emperor's  service.  Ferdinand  II.  accepted  the  offer  with 
joy,  and  sent  word  to  Wallenstein  that  he  should  immediately  pro- 


THIRTY    YEARS'     WAR  275 

1625-1627 

ceed  to  enlist  20,000  men.  "  My  army,"  the  latter  answered,  "  must 
live  by  what  it  can  take :  20,000  men  are  not  enough.  I  must  have 
50,000,  and  then  I  can  demand  what  I  want ! " 

Wallenstein  was  tall  and  meager  in  person.  His  forehead 
was  high  but  narrow,  his  hair  black  and  cut  very  short,  his  eyes 
small,  dark,  and  fiery,  and  his  complexion  yellow.  His  voice  was 
harsh  and  disagreeable,  he  never  smiled,  and  spoke  only  when  it  was 
necessary.  He  usually  dressed  in  scarlet,  with  a  leather  jerkin, 
and  wore  a  long  red  feather  on  his  hat.  There  was  something  cold, 
mistrustful,  and  mysterious  in  his  appearance,  yet  he  possessed  un- 
bounded power  over  his  soldiers,  whom  he  governed  with  severity 
and  rewarded  splendidly.  There  are  few  more  interesting  person- 
ages in  German  history. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year  1625,  and  within  three  months 
after  Ferdinand  H.  had  commissioned  Wallenstein  to  raise  an 
army,  the  new  commander  marched  into  Saxony  at  the  head 
of  30,000  men.  No  important  operations  were  undertaken  dur- 
ing the  winter.  Christian  IV.  and  Mansfeld  had  their  separate 
quarters  on  the  east  side  of  the  Elbe,  Tilly  and  Wallenstein  on  the 
west  side,  and  the  four  armies  devoured  the  substance  of  the  lands 
where  they  were  encamped.  In  April,  1626,  Mansfeld  marched 
lagainst  Wallenstein,  to  prevent  him  from  uniting  with  Tilly.  The 
[two  armies  met  at  the  bridge  of  the  Elbe,  at  Dessau,  and  fought 
[desperately.  Mansfeld  was  defeated,  driven  into  Brandenburg, 
land  then  took  his  way  through  Silesia  toward  Hungary,  with  the 
[intention  of  forming  an  alliance  with  Bethlen  Gabon  Wallenstein 
Ifollowed  and  compelled  Gabor  to  make  peace  with  the  emperor. 
[Mansfeld  disbanded  his  troops  and  set  out  for  Venice,  where  he 
rmeant  to  embark  for  England.  But  he  was  already  worn  out  by 
Ithe  hardships  of  his  campaigns,  and  died  on  the  way,  in  Dalmatia, 
|in  November,  1626,  forty-five  years  of  age.  A  few  months  after- 
iward  Prince  Christian  of  Brunswick  also  died,  and  the  Protestant 
|cause  was  left  without  any  native  German  leader. 

During  the  same  year  the  cause  received  a  second  and  severer 
)low.  On  August  26  Christian  IV.  and  Tilly  fought  a  bloody  and 
decisive  battle  at  Lutter,  a  little  town  on  the  northern  edge 
of  the  Harz  Mountains.  Christian's  army  was  cut  to  pieces,  and 
he  himself  barely  escaped  with  his  life.  There  seemed  now  to 
be  no  further  hope  for  the  Protestants.  Christian  IV.  retreated  to 
Holstein,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  gave  up  his  connection  with 


ne  GERMANY 

1«27-1«29 

the  Union  of  the  Saxon  states,  the  dukes  of  Mecklenburg  were 
powerless,  and  Maurice  of  Hesse  was  compelled  by  the  emperor  to 
abdicate.  New  measures  in  Bohemia  and  Austria  foreshadowed 
the  probable  fate  of  Germany:  the  remaining  Protestants  in  those 
two  countries,  including  a  large  majority  of  the  Austrian  nobles, 
were  made  Catholics  by  force. 

In  the  summer  of  1627  Wallenstein  again  marched  northward 
with  an  army  reorganized  and  recruited  to  40,ocx)  men.  John 
George  of  Saxony,  who  tried  to  maintain  a  selfish  and  cowardly 
neutrality,  now  saw  his  land  overrun,  and  himself  at  the  mercy  of 
the  conqueror.  Brandenburg  was  subjected  to  the  same  fate,  the 
two  Mecklenburg  duchies  were  seized  as  the  booty  of  the  empire, 
and  Wallenstein,  marching  on  without  opposition,  plundered  and 
wasted  Holstein,  Jutland,  and  Pomerania.  In  1628  the  emperor 
bestowed  Mecklenburg  upon  him.  He  g^ve  himself  -the  title  of 
"Admiral  of  the  Baltic  and  the  Ocean,"  and  drew  up  a  plan  for 
creating  a  navy  out  of  the  vessels  of  the  Hanseatic  League,  and 
conquering  Holland  for  the  House  of  Hapsburg.  After  this  should 
have  been  accomplished,  his  next  project  was  to  form  an  alliance 
with  Poland  against  Denmark  and  Sweden,  the  only  remaining 
Protestant  powers. 

While  the  rich  and  powerful  cities  of  Hamburg  and  Lubeck 
surrendered  at  his  approach,  the  little  Hanseatic  town  of  Stralsund 
closed  its  gates  against  him.  The  citizens  took  a  solemn  oath  to 
defend  their  religious  faith  and  their  political  independence  to  the 
last  drop  of  their  blood.  Wallenstein  exclaimed:  "And  if  Stral- 
sund were  bound  to  heaven  with  chains,  I  would  tear  it  down  I  '* 
and  marched  against  the  place.  At  the  first  assault  he  lost  1000 
men ;  at  the  second,  2cxx) ;  and  then  the  citizens,  in  turn,  made  sallies, 
and  inflicted  still  heavier  losses  upon  him.  They  were  soon  rein- 
forced by  2000  Swedes,  and  then  Wallenstein  was  forced  to  raise 
the  siege,  after  having  lost,  altogether,  12,000  of  his  best  troops. 
At  this  time  the  Danes  appeared  with  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  vessels, 
and  took  possession  of  the  port  of  Wolgast,  in  Mecklenburg. 

In  spite  of  this  temporary  reverse,  Ferdinand  II.  considered 
that  his  absolute  power  was  established  over  all  Germany.  After 
consulting  with  the  Catholic  electors  (one  of  whom,  now,  was  Max- 
imilian of  Bavaria),  he  issued,  on  March  6,  1629,  an  "Edict  of 
Restitution,"  ordering  that  all  the  former  territory  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church  which  had  become  Protestant  should  be  restored  to 


THIRTY    YEARS'     WAR  «77 

1629-1630 

Catholic  hands.  This  required  that  two  archbishoprics,  twelve 
bishoprics,  and  a  great  number  of  monasteries  and  churches  which 
had  ceased  to  exist  nearly  a  century  before,  should  be  again  estab- 
lished ;  and  then,  on  the  principle  that  the  religion  of  the  ruler  should 
be  that  of  the  people,  that  the  Protestant  faith  should  be  suppressed 
in  all  such  territory.  The  armies  were  kept  in  the  field  to  enforce 
this  edict,  which  was  instantly  carried  into  effect  in  southern  Ger- 
many, and  in  the  most  violent  and  barbarous  manner.  The  estates 
of  6000  noblemen  in  Franconia,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Baden  were  con- 
fiscated; even  the  property  of  reigning  princes  was  seized;  but, 
instead  of  passing  into  the  hands  of  the  church,  much  of  it  was 
bestowed  upon  the  emperor's  family  and  his  followers.  The  arch- 
bishoprics of  Bremen  and  Magdeburg  were  given  to  his  son  Leo- 
pold, a  boy  of  fifteen. 

Wallenstein,  while  equally  despotic,  was  much  more  arrogant 
and  reckless  than  Ferdinand  II.  He  openly  declared  that  reigning 
princes  and  a  national  diet  were  no  longer  necessary  in  Germany; 
the  emperor  must  be  an  absolute  ruler,  like  the  kings  of  France  and 
Spain.  At  the  same  time  he  was  carrying  out  his  own  political 
plans  without  much  reference  to  the  imperial  authority.  Both 
Catholics  and  Protestants  united  in  calling  for  a  diet.  Ferdinand 
II.  at  first  refused,  but  there  were  such  signs  of  hostility  on  the  part 
of  Holland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  even  France,  that  he  was 
forced  to  yield.  The  diet  met  on  June  5,  1630,  at  Ratisbon,  and 
Maximilian  of  Bavaria  headed  the  universal  demand  for  Wallen- 
stein's  removal.  The  Protestants  gave  testimony  of  the  merciless 
system  of  plunder  by  which  he  had  ruined  their  lands ;  the  Catholics 
complained  of  the  more  than  imperial  splendors  of  his  court,  upon 
which  he  squandered  uncounted  millions  of  stolen  money.  He  trav- 
eled with  one  hundred  carriages  and  more  than  one  thousand  horses, 
kept  fifteen  cooks  for  his  table,  and  was  waited  upon  by  sixteen  pages 
of  noble  blood.  Jealousy  of  this  pomp  and  state,  and  fear  of  Wal- 
lenstein's  ambitious  designs,  and  not  the  latter's  fiendish  inhumanity, 
induced  Ferdinand  II.  to  submit  to  the  entreaties  of  the  diet  and 
remove  him. 

The  imperial  messengers  who  were  sent  to  his  camp  with  the 
order  of  dismissal  approached  him  in  great  dread  and  anxiety,  and 
scarcely  dared  to  mention  their  business.  Wallenstein  pointed  to  a 
sheet  covered  with  astrological  characters  and  quietly  told  them 
that  he  had  known  everything  in  advance ;  that  the  emperor  had  been 


278  GERMANY 

1630 

misled  by  the  Elector  of  Bavaria ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  order  would 
be  obeyed.  He  entertained  them  at  a  magnificent  banquet,  loaded 
them  with  gifts,  and  then  sent  them  away.  With  rage  and  hate  in 
his  heart,  but  with  all  the  external  show  and  splendor  of  an  inde- 
pendent sovereign,  he  retired  to  Prague,  well  knowing  that  the  day 
was  not  far  ofif  when  his  services  would  be  again  needed. 

Tilly  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  imperial  armies. 
At  the  very  moment,  however,  when  Wallenstein  was  dismissed 
and  his  forces  divided  among  several  inferior  generals,  the  leader 
whom  the  German  Protestants  could  not  furnish  came  to  them  from 
abroad.  On  July  4,  1630,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden, 
landed  on  the  coast  of  Pomerania  with  an  army  of  16,000  men. 
As  he  stepped  upon  the  shore  he  knelt  in  the  sight  of  all  the 
soldiers  and  prayed  that  God  would  befriend  him.  Some  of  his 
staff  could  not  restrain  their  tears;  whereupon  he  said  to  them: 
"Weep  not,  friends,  but  pray,  for  prayer  is  half  the  victory! " 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  161 1 
at  the  age  of  seventeen,  was  already  distinguished  as  a  military  com- 
mander. He  had  defeated  the  Russians  in  Livonia  and  banished 
them  from  the  Baltic;  he  had  fought  for  three  years  with  King 
Sigismund  of  Poland,  and  taken  from  him  the  ports  of  Elbing, 
Pillau,  and  Memel,  and  he  was  now  burning  with  zeal  to  defend 
the  falling  Protestant  cause  in  Germany.  Cardinal  Richelieu,  in 
France,  helped  him  to  the  opportunity  by  persuading  Sigismund  to 
accept  an  armistice,  and  by  furnishing  Sweden  with  the  means  of 
carrying  on  a  war  against  Ferdinand  H.  The  latter  had  assisted 
Poland,  so  that  a  pretext  was  not  wanting ;  but  when  Gustavus  laid 
his  plans  before  his  council  in  Stockholm,  a  majority  of  the  members 
advised  him  to  wait  for  a  new  cause  of  offense.  Nevertheless,  he 
insisted  on  immediate  action.  The  representatives  of  the  four 
orders  of  the  people  were  convoked  in  the  senate  house,  where  he 
appeared  before  them  with  his  little  daughter,  Christina,  in  his  arms, 
asked  them  to  swear  fealty  to  her,  and  then  bade  them  a  solemn 
farewell.  All  burst  into  tears  when  he  said :  "  Perhaps  for- 
ever," but  nothing  could  shake  his  resolution  to  undertake  the  great 
work. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  was  at  this  time  thirty-six  years  old.  He 
was  so  tall  and  powerfully  built  that  he  almost  seemed  a  giant ;  his 
face  was  remarkably  frank  and  cheerful  in  expression,  his  hair  light, 
his  eyes  large  and  gray,  and  his  nose  aquiline.     Personally,  he  was 


THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  «79 

1630-1631 

a  Striking  contrast  to  the  little,  haggard  and  wrinkled  Tilly  and  the 
dark,  silent,  and  gloomy  Wallenstein.  Ferdinand  II.  laughed  when 
he  heard  of  his  landing,  called  him  the  "  Snow  King,"  and  said  that 
he  would  melt  away  after  one  winter ;  but  the  common  people,  who 
loved  and  trusted  him  as  soon  as  they  saw  him,  named  him  the  "  Lion 
of  the  North."  He  was  no  less  a  statesman  than  a  soldier,  and  his 
accomplishments  were  unusual  in  a  ruler  of  those  days.  He  was  a 
generous  patron  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  spoke  four  languages  with 
ease  and  elegance,  was  learned  in  theology,  a  ready  orator  and — 
best  of  all — he  was  honest,  devout,  and  conscientious  in  all  his  ways. 
The  best  blood  of  the  Goths,  from  whom  he  was  descended,  beat  in 
his  veins,  and  the  Germans,  therefore,  could  not  look  upon  him  as 
a  foreigner ;  to  them  he  was  a  countryman  as  well  as  a  deliverer. 

The  Protestant  princes,  however,  although  in  the  utmost  peril 
and  humiliated  to  the  dust,  refused  to  unite  with  him.  If  their 
course  had  been  cowardly  and  selfish  before,  it  now  became  simply 
infamous.  The  Duke  of  Pomerania  shut  the  gates  of  Stettin  upon 
the  Swedish  army,  until  compelled  by  threats  to  open  them;  the 
electors  of  Brandenburg  and  Saxony  held  themselves  aloof,  and 
Gustavus  found  himself  obliged  to  respect  their  neutrality,  lest  they 
should  go  over  to  the  emperor's  side!  Out  of  all  Protestant  Ger- 
many there  came  to  him  a  few  petty  princes  whose  lands  had  been 
seized  by  the  Catholics,  and  who  could  only  offer  their  swords.  His 
own  troops,  however,  had  been  seasoned  in  many  battles ;  their  dis- 
cipline was  perfect,  and  when  the  German  people  found  that  the 
slightest  act  of  plunder  or  violence  was  severely  punished,  they  were 
welcomed  wherever  they  marched. 

Moving  slowly,  and  with  as  much  wisdom  as  caution,  Gustavus 
relieved  Pomerania  from  the  imperial  troops  by  the  end  of  the  year. 
He  then  took  Frankfort-on-the-Oder  by  storm,  and  forced  the  Elec- 
tor of  Brandenburg  to  give  him  the  use  of  Spandau  as  a  fortress 
until  he  should  have  relieved  Magdeburg,  the  only  German  city 
which  had  forcibly  resisted  the  "  Edict  of  Restitution,"  and  was 
now  besieged  by  Tilly  and  Pappenheim.  As  the  city  was  hard 
pressed,  Gustavus  demanded  of  John  George,  Elector  of  Saxony, 
permission  to  march  through  his  territory.  It  was  refused !  Mag- 
deburg was  defended  by  2300  soldiers  and  5000  armed  citizens 
against  an  army  of  30,000  men  for  more  than  a  month;  then, 
on  May  10,  163 1,  it  was  taken  by  storm  and  given  up  to  the 
barbarous  fury  of  Tilly  and  his  troops.     The  city  sank  in  blood  and 


fSO  GERMANY 

1631 

ashes:  30,000  of  the  inhabitants  perished  by  the  sword,  or  in  the 
flames,  or  crushed  under  falHng  walls,  or  drowned  in  the  waters  of 
the  Elbe.  Only  4000,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  cathedral,  were 
spared.  Tilly  wrote  to  the  emperor :  "  Since  the  fall  of  Troy  and 
Jerusalem,  such  a  victory  has  never  been  seen ;  and  I  am  sincerely 
sorry  that  the  ladies  of  your  imperial  family  could  not  have  been 
present  as  spectators !  " 

Gustavus  Adolphus  has  been  blamed,  especially  by  the  admirers 
and  defenders  of  the  Houses  of  Brandenburg  and  Saxony,  for  not 
having  saved  Magdeburg.  This  he  might  have  done  had  he  disre- 
garded the  neutrality  asserted  by  John  George;  but  he  had  been 
bitterly  disappointed  at  his  reception  by  the  Protestant  princes,  he 
could  not  trust  them,  and  was  not  strong  enough  to  fight  Tilly  with 
possible  enemies  in  his  rear.  In  fact,  George  William  of  Branden- 
burg immediately  ordered  him  to  give  up  Spandau  and  leave  his 
territory.  Then  Gustavus  did  what  he  should  have  done  at  first: 
he  planted  his  cannon  before  Berlin  and  threatened  to  lay  the  city 
in  ashes.  This  brought  George  William  to  his  senses;  he  agreed 
that  his  fortresses  should  be  used  by  the  Swedes,  and  contributed 
thirty  thousand  dollars  a  month  toward  the  expenses  of  the  war. 
So  many  recruits  flocked  to  the  Swedish  standard  that  both  Meck- 
lenburgs  were  soon  cleared  of  the  imperial  troops,  the  banished 
dukes  restored,  and  an  attack  by  Tilly  upon  the  fortified  camp  of 
Gustavus  was  repulsed  with  heavy  losses. 

Landgrave  William  of  Hesse-Cassel  was  the  first  Protestant 
prince  who  voluntarily  allied  himself  with  the  Swedish  king.  He 
was  shortly  followed  by  the  unwilling  but  helpless  John  George  of 
Saxony,  whose  territory  was  invaded  and  wasted  by  Tilly's  army. 
Ferdinand  H.  had  given  this  order,  meaning  that  the  elector  should 
at  least  support  his  troops.  Tilly  took  possession  of  Halle,  Naum- 
burg,  and  other  cities,  plundered  and  levied  heavy  contributions, 
and  at  last  entered  Leipzig,  after  bombarding  it  for  four  days. 
Then  John  George  united  his  troops  with  those  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus, who  now  commanded  an  army  of  35,000  men. 

Tilly  and  Pappenheim  had  an  equal  force  to  oppose  him.  After 
a  good  deal  of  cautious  maneuvering,  the  two  armies  stood  face  to 
face  at  Breitenfeld,  a  few  miles  north  of  Leipzig,  on  September 
7,  1 63 1.  The  Swedes  were  without  armor,  and  Gustavus  dis- 
tributed musketeers  among  the  cavalry  and  pikemen.  Baner,  one 
of  his  generals,  commanded  his  right,  and  Marshal  Horn  his 


GENERAL    TILLY    ENTERS    THE    BURNING    MAGDEBURG    AFTER    IT    HAD    BEEN 

GIVEN    OVER   TO   PILLAGE   BY    HIS   VICTORIOUS    ARMY 

Painting    by    E.    Klein 


THIRTY     YEARS'     WAR  281 

1631-1632 

left,  where  the  Saxons  were  stationed.  The  army  of  Tilly  was 
drawn  up  in  a  long  line,  and  the  troops  wore  heavy  cuirasses  and 
helmets.  Pappenheim  commanded  the  left,  opposite  Gustavus,  while 
Tilly  undertook  to  engage  the  Saxons.  The  battle-cry  of  the  Prot- 
estants was  "  God  with  us !  " — that  of  the  Catholics  "  Jesus  Maria !  " 
Gustavus,  wearing  a  white  hat  and  green  feather,  and  mounted  on 
a  white  horse,  rode  up  and  down  the  lines,  encouraging  his  men. 
The  Saxons  gave  way  before  Tilly,  and  began  to  fly ;  but  the  Swedes, 
after  repelling  seven  charges  of  Pappenheim's  cavalry,  broke  the 
enemy's  right  wing,  captured  the  cannon,  and  turned  them  against 
Tilly.  The  imperial  army,  thrown  into  confusion,  fled  in  disorder, 
pursued  by  the  Swedes,  who  cut  them  down  until  night  put  an  end 
to  the  slaughter,  Tilly,  severely  wounded,  narrowly  escaped  death, 
and  reached  Halle  with  only  a  few  hundred  men. 

This  splendid  victory  restored  the  hopes  of  the  Protestants 
everywhere.  Duke  Bernard  of  Saxe- Weimar  had  joined  Gustavus 
before  the  battle.  In  his  zeal  for  the  cause,  his  honesty  and  bravery, 
he  resembled  the  king,  whose  chief  reliance,  as  a  military  leader,  he 
soon  became.  John  George  of  Saxony  consented,  though  with  evi- 
dent reluctance,  to  march  into  Bohemia,  where  the  crushed  Protes- 
tants were  longing  for  help,  while  the  Swedish  army  advanced 
through  central  Germany  to  the  Rhine.  Tilly  gathered  together 
the  scattered  imperial  forces  left  in  the  north,  followed,  and  vainly 
endeavored  to  check  Gustavus.  The  latter  took  Wiirzburg,  de- 
feated I7,cxx)  men  under  Charles  of  Lorraine,  who  had  crossed  the 
Rhine  to  oppose  him,  and  entered  Frankfort  in  triumph.  Here  he 
fixed  his  winter  quarters,  and  allowed  his  faithful  Swedish  troops 
the  rest  which  they  so  much  needed. 

Gustavus  proclaimed  everywhere  religious  freedom,  not  retalia- 
tion for  the  barbarities  inflicted  on  the  Protestants.  He  soon  made 
himself  respected  by  his  enemies,  and  his  influence  spread  so  rapidly 
that  the  idea  of  becoming  emperor  of  Germany  was  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  his  success.  His  wife.  Queen  Eleanor,  having  joined 
him,  he  held  a  splendid  court  at  Frankfort,  and  required  the  German 
princes  whom  he  had  subjected  to  acknowledge  themselves  his  depen- 
dents. The  winter  of  163 1- 1632  was  given  up  to  diplomacy  rather 
than  war.  Richelieu  began  to  be  jealous  of  the  increasing  power 
of  the  Swedish  king,  and  entered  into  secret  negotiations  with 
Maximilian  of  Bavaria.  The  latter  also  corresponded  with  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus,  who  by  this  time  had  secured  the  neutrality  of  the 


282  GERMANY 

1632 

States  along  the  Rhine,  and  the  support  of  a  large  majority  of  the 
population  of  the  Palatinate,  Baden,  and  W^iirtemberg. 

In  the  eariy  spring  of  1632,  satisfied  that  no  arrangement  with 
Maximilian  was  possible,  Gustavus  reorganized  his  army  and  set 
out  for  Bavaria.  The  city  of  Nuremberg  received  him  with  the 
wildest  rejoicing:  then  he  advanced  upon  Donauworth,  drove  out 
Maximilian's  troops  and  restored  Protestant  worship  in  the  churches. 
Tilly  meanwhile  had  added  Maximilian's  army  to  his  own,  and 
taken  up  a  strong  position  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  River  Lech, 
between  Augsburg  and  the  Danube.  Gustavus  marched  against 
him,  cannonaded  his  position  for  three  days  from  the  opposite  bank, 
and  had  partly  crossed  under  cover  of  the  smoke  before  his  plan  was 
discovered.  On  April  15  Tilly  was  mortally  wounded,  and  his 
army  fled  in  the  greatest  confusion.  He  died  a  few  days  afterward, 
at  Ingolstadt,  seventy-three  years  old. 

The  city  of  Augsburg  opened  its  gates  to  the  conqueror  and 
acknowledged  his  authority.  Then,  after  attacking  Ingolstadt  with- 
out success,  Gustavus  marched  upon  Munich,  which  was  unable  to 
resist,  but  was  spared,  on  condition  of  paying  a  heavy  contribution. 
The  Bavarians  had  buried  a  number  of  cannon  under  the  floor  of 
the  arsenal,  and  news  thereof  came  to  the  king's  ears.  "  Let  the 
dead  arise !  "  he  ordered ;  and  140  pieces  were  dug  up,  one  of  which 
contained  30,000  ducats.  Maximilian,  whose  land  was  completely 
overrun  by  the  Swedes,  would  gladly  have  made  peace,  but  Gustavus 
plainly  told  him  that  he  was  not  to  be  trusted.  While  the  Protestant 
cause  was  so  brilliantly  victorious  in  the  south,  John  George  of 
Saxony,  who  had  taken  possession  of  Prague  without  the  least 
trouble,  remained  inactive  in  Bohemia  during  the  winter  and  spring, 
apparently  as  jealous  of  Gustavus  as  he  was  afraid  of  Ferdinand  II. 

The  emperor  had  long  before  ceased  to  laugh  at  the  "  Snow 
King."  He  was  in  the  greatest  strait  of  his  life.  He  knew  that 
his  trampled  Austrians  would  rise  at  the  approach  of  the  Swedish 
army,  and  then  the  Catholic  cause  would  be  lost.  Before  this  he 
had  appealed  to  Wallenstein,  who  was  holding  a  splendid  court  at 
Znaim,  in  Moravia;  but  the  latter  refused,  knowing  that  he  could 
exact  better  terms  for  his  support  by  waiting  a  little  longer.  The 
danger,  in  fact,  increased  so  rapidly  that  Ferdinand  II.  was  finally 
compelled  to  subscribe  to  an  agreement  which  practically  made  Wal- 
lenstein the  lord  and  himself  the  subject.  He  gave  the  duchies  of 
Mecklenburg  to  Wallenstein,  and  promised  him  one  of  the  Hapsburg 


THIRTY     YEARS'     WAR  «8S 

1632 

States  in  Austria ;  he  gave  him  the  entire  disposal  of  all  the  territory 
he  should  conquer,  and  agreed  to  pay  the  expenses  of  his  army. 
Moreover,  all  appointments  were  left  to  Wallenstein,  and  the  em- 
peror pledged  himself  that  neither  he  nor  his  son  should  ever  visit 
the  generalissimo's  camp. 

Having  thus  become  absolute  master  of  his  movements,  Wal- 
lenstein oflfered  a  high  rate  of  payment  and  boundless  chances  of 
plunder  to  all  who  might  enlist  under  him,  and  in  two  or  three 
months  stood  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  40,000  men,  many  of  whom 
were  demoralized  Protestants.  He  took  possession  of  Prague, 
which  John  George  vacated  at  his  approach,  and  then  waited  quietly 
until  Maximilian  should  be  forced  by  necessity  to  give  him  also  the 
command  of  the  Bavarian  forces.  This  soon  came  to  pass,  and  then 
Wallenstein,  with  80,000  men,  marched  against  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
who  fell  back  upon  Nuremberg,  which  he  surrounded  with  a  forti- 
fied camp.  Instead  of  attacking  him,  Wallenstein  took  possession 
of  the  height  of  Zirndorf,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  city,  and 
strongly  entrenched  himself.  Here  the  two  commanders  lay  for 
nine  weeks,  watching  each  other,  until  Gustavus,  whose  force 
amounted  to  about  35,000,  grew  impatient  of  the  delay  and  troubled 
by  the  want  of  supplies. 

He  attacked  Wallenstein's  camp,  but  was  repulsed  with  a  loss 
of  2000  men ;  then,  after  waiting  two  weeks  longer,  he  marched  out 
of  Nuremberg,  with  the  intention  of  invading  Bavaria.  Maximilian 
followed  him  with  the  Bavarian  troops,  and  Wallenstein,  whose 
army  had  been  greatly  diminished  by  disease  and  desertion,  moved 
into  Franconia.  Then,  wheeling  suddenly,  he  crossed  the  Thurin- 
gian  Mountains  into  Saxony,  burning  and  pillaging  as  he  went,  took 
Leipzig,  and  threatened  Dresden.  John  George,  who  was  utterly 
unprepared  for  such  a  movement,  again  called  upon  Gustavus  for 
help,  and  the  latter,  leaving  Bavaria,  hastened  to  Saxony  by  forced 
marches.  On  October  27  he  reached  Erfurt,  where  he  took 
leave  of  his  wife,  with  a  presentiment  that  he  should  never  see  her 
again. 

As  he  passed  on  through  Weimar  to  Naumburg,  the  country 
people  flocked  to  see  him,  falling  on  their  knees,  kissing  his  garments, 
and  expressing  such  other  signs  of  faith  and  veneration  that  he  ex- 
claimed :  "  I  pray  that  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty  may  not  be  visited 
upon  me  on  account  of  this  idolatry  toward  a  weak  and  sinful 
mortal ! "     Wallenstein's  force  being  considerably  larger  than  his 


5884  GERMANY 

163S 

own,  he  halted  in  Naumburg  to  await  the  former's  movements.  As 
the  season  was  so  far  advanced,  Wallenstein  finally  decided  to  send 
Pappenheim  with  10,000  men  into  Westphalia,  and  then  go  into 
winter  quarters.  As  soon  as  Gustavus  heard  of  Pappenheim's  de- 
parture he  marched  to  the  attack,  and  the  battle  began  on  the  morn- 
ing of  November  16,  1632,  at  Liitzen,  between  Naumburg  and 
Leipzig. 

On  both  sides  the  troops  had  been  arranged  with  great  military 
skill.  Wallenstein  had  25,000  men  and  Gustavus  20,000.  The 
latter  made  a  stirring  address  to  his  Swedes,  and  then  the  whole 
army  united  in  singing  Luther's  grand  hymn :  "  Our  Lord,  He  is  a 
Tower  of  Strength."  For  several  hours  the  battle  raged  furiously, 
without  any  marked  advantage  on  either  side ;  then  the  Swedes  broke 
Wallenstein's  left  wing  and  captured  the  artillery.  The  imperialists 
rallied  and  retook  it,  throwing  the  Swedes  into  some  confusion. 
Gustavus  rode  forward  to  rally  them  and  was  carried  by  his  horse 
among  the  enemy.  A  shot,  fired  at  close  quarters,  shattered  his  left 
arm,  but  he  refused  to  leave  the  field,  and  shortly  afterward  a  sec- 
ond shot  struck  him  from  his  horse.  The  sight  of  the  steed,  covered 
with  blood  and  wildly  galloping  to  and  fro,  told  the  Swedes  what 
had  happened ;  but  instead  of  being  disheartened  they  fought  more 
furiously  than  before,  under  the  command  of  Duke  Bernard  of  Saxe- 
Weimar. 

At  this  juncture  Pappenheim,  who  had  been  summoned  from 
Halle  the  day  before,  arrived  on  the  field.  His  first  impetuous 
charge  drove  the  Swedes  back,  but  he  also  fell,  mortally  wounded, 
his  cavalry  began  to  waver,  and  the  lost  ground  was  regained.  Night 
put  an  end  to  the  conflict,  and  before  morning  Wallenstein  retreated 
to  Leipzig,  leaving  all  his  artillery  and  colors  on  the  field.  The 
body  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  found  after  a  long  search,  buried 
under  a  heap  of  dead,  stripped,  mutilated  by  the  hoofs  of  horses, 
and  barely  recognizable.  The  loss  to  the  Protestant  cause  seemed 
irreparable,  but  the  heroic  king,  in  falling,  had  so  crippled  the  power 
of  its  most  dangerous  enemy  that  its  remaining  adherents  had  a 
little  breathing-time  left  them  to  arrange  for  carrying  on  the 
struggle. 

Wallenstein  was  so  weakened  that  he  did  not  even  remain  in 
Saxony,  but  retired  to  Bohemia.  The  Protestant  princes  felt  them- 
selves powerless  without  the  aid  of  Sweden,  and  when  the  chancellor 
of  the  kingdom,  Oxenstierna,  decided  to  carry  on  the  war,  they  could 


THIRTY     YEARS'     WAR  «86 

1632-1633 

not  do  otherwise  than  accept  him  as  the  head  of  the  Protestant 
Union,  in  the  place  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  A  meeting  was  held  at 
Heilbronn,  in  the  spring  of  1633,  at  which  the  Suabian,  Franconian, 
and  Rhenish  princes  formally  joined  the  new  league.  Duke  Ber- 
nard of  Saxe-Weimar  and  the  Swedish  Marshal  Horn  were  ap- 
pointed commanders  of  the  army.  Electoral  Saxony  and  Branden- 
burg, as  before,  hesitated  and  half  drew  back,  but  they  finally  con- 
sented to  favor  the  movement  without  joining  it,  and  each  accepted 
100,000  thalers  a  year  from  France,  to  pay  them  for  the  trouble. 
Richelieu  had  an  ambassador  at  Heilbronn,  who  promised  large 
subsidies  to  the  Protestant  side :  it  was  in  the  interest  of  France  to 
break  the  power  of  the  Hapsburgs,  and  there  was  also  a  chance,  in 
the  struggle,  of  gaining  another  slice  of  German  territory. 

Hostilities  were  renewed,  and  for  a  considerable  time  the 
Protestant  armies  were  successful  everywhere.  William  of  Hesse 
and  Duke  George  of  Brunswick  defeated  the  imperialists  and  held 
Westphalia.  Duke  Bernard  took  Bamberg  and  moved  against 
Bavaria.  Saxony  and  Silesia  were  delivered  from  the  enemy,  and 
Marshal  Horn  took  possession  of  Alsatia.  Duke  Bernard  and  Horn 
were  only  prevented  from  overrunning  all  Bavaria  by  a  mutiny 
which  broke  out  in  their  armies,  and  deprived  them  of  several  weeks 
of  valuable  time. 

While  these  movements  were  going  on  Wallenstein  remained 
idle  at  Prague,  in  spite  of  the  repeated  and  pressing  entreaties  of  the 
emperor  that  he  would  take  the  field.  He  seems  to  have  considered 
his  personal  power  secured,  and  was  only  in  doubt  as  to  the  next  step 
which  he  should  take  in  his  ambitious  career.  Finally,  in  May,  he 
marched  into  Silesia,  easily  out-generaled  Arnheim,  who  commanded 
the  Protestant  armies,  but  declined  to  follow  up  his  advantage,  and 
concluded  an  armistice.  Secret  negotiations  then  began  between 
Wallenstein,  Arnheim,  and  the  French  ambassador.  The  project 
was  that  Wallenstein  should  come  over  to  the  Protestant  side  in 
return  for  the  crown  of  Bohemia.  Louis  XHI.  of  France  promised 
his  aid,  but  Chancellor  Oxenstierna,  distrusting  Wallenstein,  refused 
to  be  a  party  to  the  plan.  There  is  no  positive  evidence,  indeed, 
that  Wallenstein  consented ;  it  rather  seems  that  he  was  only  court- 
ing offers  from  the  Protestant  side  in  order  to  have  a  choice  of 
advantages,  but  without  binding  himself  in  any  way. 

Ferdinand  H.,  in  his  desperation,  summoned  a  Spanish  army 
from  Italy  to  his  aid.     This  was  a  new  offense  to  Wallenstein,  since 


286  GERMANY 

16S3-1634 

the  new  troops  were  not  placed  under  his  command,  as  they  should 
have  been  in  accordance  with  the  stipulation  he  had  exacted  from 
the  emperor  upon  taking  up  the  command  a  second  time.  In  the 
autumn  of  1633,  however,  he  felt  obliged  to  make  some  movement. 
He  entered  Silesia,  defeated  a  Protestant  army  under  Count  Thum, 
overran  the  greater  part  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  and  threat- 
ened Pomerania.  In  the  meantime  the  Spanish  and  Austrian  troops 
in  Bavaria  had  been  forced  to  fall  back,  Duke  Bernard  had  taken 
Ratisbon,  and  the  road  to  Vienna  was  open  to  him.  Ferdinand  II. 
and  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  sent  messenger  after  messenger  to  Wal- 
lenstein,  imploring  him  to  return  from  the  north  without  delay.  He 
moved  with  the  greatest  slowness,  evidently  enjoying  their  anxiety 
and  alarm,  crossed  the  northern  frontier  of-  Bavaria,  and  then,  in- 
stead of  marching  against  Duke  Bernard,  he  turned  about  and  took 
up  his  winter  quarters  at  Pilsen,  in  Bohemia. 

Here  he  received  an  order  from  the  emperor,  commanding  him 
to  march  instantly  against  Ratisbon,  and  further,  to  send  6000  of 
his  best  cavalry  to  the  Spanish  army.  This  step  compelled  him, 
after  a  year's  hesitation,  to  act  without  further  delay.  He  was 
already  charged,  at  Vienna,  with  being  a  traitor  to  the  imperial 
cause :  he  now  decided  to  become  one,  in  reality.  He  first  confided 
his  design  to  his  brothers-in-law.  Counts  Kinsky  and  Terzky,  and  to 
one  of  his  generals,  Illo.  Then  a  council  of  war  of  all  the  chief 
officers  of  his  army  was  called  on  January  11,  1634.  Wallenstein 
stated  what  Ferdinand  II.  had  ordered,  and  in  a  cunning  speech 
commented  on  the  latter's  ingratitude  to  the  army  which  had  saved 
him,  and  ended  by  declaring  that  he  should  instantly  resign  his  com- 
mand. The  officers  were  thunderstruck.  They  had  boundless  faith 
in  Wallenstein's  military  genius,  and  they  saw  themselves  deprived 
of  glory,  pay,  and  plunder  by  his  resignation.  He  skillfully  made 
use  of  their  excitement.  At  a  g^and  banquet  the  next  day  forty- 
two  of  the  officers,  which  included  the  great  majority  of  them, 
signed  a  document  pledging  their  entire  fidelity  to  Wallenstein. 

General  Piccolomini,  one  of  the  signers,  betrayed  all  this  to 
the  emperor,  who,  twelve  days  afterward,  appointed  General  Gallas, 
another  of  the  signers,  commander  in  Wallenstein's  stead.  At  the 
same  time  a  secret  order  was  issued  for  the  seizure  of  Wallenstein, 
Illo,  and  Terzky,  dead  or  alive.  Both  sides  were  now  secretly 
working  against  each  other,  but  Wallenstein's  former  delay  told 
against  him.    He  could  not  go  over  to  the  Protestant  side  unless 


THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR  287 

1634 

certain  important  conditions  were  secured  in  advance,  and  while  his 
agents  were  negotiating  with  Duke  Bernard,  his  own  army,  privately 
worked  upon  by  Gallas  and  other  agents  of  the  emperor,  began  to 
desert  him.  What  arrangement  was  made  with  Duke  Bernard  is 
uncertain;  the  chief  evidence  is  that  he  and  Wallenstein  with  the 
the  few  thousand  troops  who  still  stood  by  him  moved  rapidly 
toward  each  other,  as  if  to  join  their  forces. 

On  February  24,  1634,  Wallenstein  reached  the  town  of  Eger, 
near  the  Bohemian  frontier.  Only  two  or  three  more  days  were 
required  to  consummate  his  plan  of  uniting  with  the  Protestant 
Swedes  under  Bernard.  Then  Colonel  Butler,  an  Irishman,  and 
two  Scotch  officers,  Gordon  and  Leslie,  conspired  to  murder  him  and 
his  associates — no  doubt  in  consequence  of  instructions  received 
from  Vienna.  Illo,  Terzky,  and  Kinsky  accepted  an  invitation  to 
a  banquet  in  the  citadel  the  following  evening;  but  Wallenstein, 
who  was  unwell,  remained  in  his  quarters  in  the  burgomaster's 
house.  Everything  had  been  carefully  prepared  in  advance.  At 
a  given  signal  Gordon  and  Leslie  put  out  the  lights,  dragoons  en- 
tered the  banquet  hall,  and  the  three  victims  were  murdered  in  cold 
blood.  Then  a  Captain  Devereux,  with  six  soldiers,  forced  his 
way  into  the  burgomaster's  house,  on  pretense  of  bearing  im- 
portant dispatches,  cut  down  Wallenstein's  servant,  and  entered  the 
room  where  he  lay.  Wallenstein,  seeing  that  his  hour  had  come, 
made  no  resistance,  but  silently  received  his  death-blow. 

When  Duke  Bernard  arrived,  a  day  or  two  afterward,  he 
found  Eger  defended  by  the  imperialists.  Ferdinand  IL  shed  tears 
when  he  heard  of  Wallenstein's  death,  and  ordered  3000  masses  to 
be  said  for  his  soul;  but  at  the  same  time  he  raised  the  assassins, 
Butler  and  Leslie,  to  the  rank  of  counts,  and  rewarded  them  splen- 
didly for  the  deed.  Wallenstein's  immense  estates  were  divided 
among  the  officers  who  had  sworn  to  support  him  and  had  then 
secretly  gone  over  to  the  emperor. 


Chapter   XXVIII 

END  OF  THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR.     1634-1648 

THE  Austrian  army,  composed  chiefly  of  Wallenstein's 
troops  and  commanded  nominally  by  the  emperor's  son, 
the  Archduke  Ferdinand,  but  really  by  General  Gallas, 
marched  upon  Ratisbon  and  forced  the  Swedish  garrison  to  sur- 
render before  Duke  Bernard,  hastening  back  from  Eger,  could 
reach  the  place.  Then,  uniting  with  the  Spanish  and  Bavarian 
forces,  the  archduke  took  Donauworth  and  began  the  siege  of  the 
fortified  town  of  Nordlingen,  in  Wiirtemberg.  Duke  Bernard 
effected  a  junction  with  Marshal  Horn,  and  with  his  usual  daring 
determined  to  attack  the  imperialists  at  once.  Horn  endeavored 
to  dissuade  him,  but  in  vain;  the  battle  was  fought  on  Septem- 
ber 6,  1634,  and  the  Protestants  were  terribly  defeated,  losing 
12,000  men,  besides  6000  prisoners,  and  nearly  all  their  artillery  and 
baggage  wagons.  Marshal  Horn  was  among  the  prisoners,  and 
Duke  Bernard  barely  succeeded  in  escaping  with  a  few  followers. 

The  result  of  this  defeat  was  that  Wurtemberg  and  the  Palat- 
inate were  again  ravaged  by  Catholic  armies.  Oxenstierna,  who 
was  consulting  with  the  Protestant  princes  in  Frankfort,  suddenly 
found  himself  nearly  deserted;  only  Hesse-Cassel,  Wurtemberg, 
and  Baden  remained  on  his  side.  In  this  crisis  he  turned  to  France, 
which  agreed  to  assist  the  Swedes  against  the  emperor,  in  return 
for  more  territory  in  Lorraine  and  Alsatia.  For  the  first  time 
Richelieu  found  it  advisable  to  give  up  his  policy  of  aiding  the 
Protestants  with  money,  and  now  openly  supported  them  with 
French  troops.  John  George  of  Saxony,  who  had  driven  the  im- 
perialists from  his  land  and  invaded  Bohemia,  cunningly  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  emperor's  new  danger,  and  made  a  separate  treaty 
with  him,  at  Prague,  in  May,  1635.  The  emperor  gave  up  the 
"  Edict  of  Restitution  "  so  far  as  Saxony  was  concerned,  confirmed 
the  elector  in  the  possession  of  Lusatia,  and  made  a  few  other  ccwi- 
cessions,  none  of  which  favored  the  Protestants  in  other  lands. 

888 


END     OF    THIRTY    YEARS'     WAR         289 

1635-1637 

Brandenburg,  Mecklenburg,  Brunswick,  Anhalt,  and  many  free 
cities  followed  the  example  of  Saxony.  The  most  important,  and 
— apparently  for  the  Swedes  and  south  German  Protestants — most 
fatal  provision  of  the  treaty  was  that  all  the  states  which  accepted 
it  should  combine  to  raise  an  army  to  enforce  it,  the  said  army 
to  be  placed  at  the  emperor's  disposal.  The  effect  of  this  was  to 
create  a  union  of  the  Catholics  and  German  Lutherans  against  the 
Swedish  Lutherans  and  German  Calvinists — a  measure  which  gave 
Germany  many  more  years  of  fire  and  blood.  Duke  Bernard  of 
Saxe- Weimar  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse-Cassel  scorned  to  be 
parties  to  such  a  compact.  The  Swedes  and  south  Germans  were 
outraged  and  indignant.  John  George  was  openly  denounced  as 
a  traitor,  as,  on  the  Catholic  side,  the  emperor  was  also  denounced, 
because  he  had  agreed  to  yield  anything  whatever  to  the  Protestants. 
France,  only,  enjoyed  the  miseries  of  the  situation. 

Ferdinand  IL  was  evidently  weary  of  the  war,  which  had  now 
lasted  nearly  a  score  of  years,  and  he  made  an  effort  to  terminate 
it  by  offering  to  Sweden  three  and  a  half  millions  of  florins  and 
to  Duke  Bernard  a  principality  in  Franconia,  provided  they  would 
accept  the  Treaty  of  Prague.  Both  refused.  Bernard  took  com- 
mand of  12,000  French  troops  and  marched  into  Alsatia,  while  the 
Swedish  General  Baner  defeated  the  Saxons,  who  had  taken  the 
field  against  him,  in  three  successive  battles.  The  imperialists,  who 
had  meanwhile  retaken  Alsatia  and  invaded  France,  were  recalled 
to  Germany  by  Baner's  victories,  and  Duke  Bernard,  at  the  same 
time,  went  to  Paris  to  procure  additional  support.  During  the 
years  1636  and  1637  nearly  all  Germany  was  wasted  by  the  op- 
posing armies ;  the  struggle  had  become  fiercer  and  more  barbarous 
than  ever,  and  the  last  resources  of  many  states  were  so  exhausted 
that  famine  and  disease  carried  off  nearly  all  of  the  population 
whom  the  sword  had  spared. 

Duke  Bernard  made  an  agreement  with  Louis  XIII.  whereby 
he  received  the  rank  of  Marshal  of  France,  and  a  subsidy  of  four 
million  livres  a  year,  to  pay  for  a  force  of  18,000  men,  which  he 
undertook  to  raise  in  Germany.  After  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  the  hope  of  the  Protestants  was  centered  on  him;  soldiers 
flocked  to  his  standard  at  once,  and  his  fortunes  suddenly  changed. 
He  entered  Alsatia,  routed  the  imperialists,  took  their  commander 
prisoner,  and  soon  gained  possession  of  all  the  territory  with  the 
exception  of  the  fortress  of  Breisach,  to  which  he  laid  siege. 


290  GERMANY 

1637-1639 

On  February  15,  1637,  the  Emperor  Ferdinand  II.  died, 
in  the  fifty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  after  having  occasioned,  by 
his  poHcy,  the  death  of  ten  milHons  of  human  beings.  Yet  the 
responsibiHty  of  his  fatal  and  terrible  reign  rests  not  so  much  upon 
himself,  personally,  as  upon  the  Jesuits,  who  educated  him.  He 
appears  to  have  believed  sincerely  that  it  was  better  to  reign  over 
a  desert  than  over  a  Protestant  people.  As  a  man  he  was  cour- 
ageous, patient,  simple  in  his  tastes,  and  without  personal  vices.  But 
all  the  weaknesses  and  crimes  of  his  worst  predecessors  added  to- 
gether were  scarcely  a  greater  curse  to  the  German  people  than  his 
devotion  to  what  he  considered  the  true  faith.  His  son,  Ferdinand 
III.,  was  immediately  elected  to  succeed  him.  The  Protestants  con- 
sidered him  less  subject  to  the  Jesuits  and  more  kindly  disposed 
toward  themselves,  but  they  were  mistaken;  he  adopted  all  the 
measures  of  his  father,  and  carried  on  the  war  with  equal  zeal. 

More  than  one  army  was  sent  to  the  relief  of  Breisach,  but 
Duke  Bernard  defeated  them  all,  and  in  December,  1638,  the  strong 
fortress  surrendered  to  him.  His  compact  with  France  stipulated 
that  he  should  possess  the  greater  part  of  Alsatia  as  his  own  inde- 
pendent principality,  after  conquering  it,  relinquishing  to  France 
the  northern  portion,  bordering  on  Lorraine.  But  now  Louis  XIII. 
demanded  Breisach,  making  its  surrender  to  him  the  condition  of 
further  assistance.  Bernard  refused,  gave  up  the  French  subsidy, 
and  determined  to  carry  on  the  war  alone.  His  popularity  was  so 
great  that  his  chance  of  success  seemed  good ;  he  was  a  brave,  devout, 
and  noble-minded  man,  whose  strong  personal  ambition  was  always 
controlled  by  his  conscience.  The  people  had  entire  faith  in  him, 
and  showed  him  the  same  reverence  which  they  had  manifested 
toward  Gustavus  Adolphus;  yet  their  hope,  as  before,  only  pre- 
ceded their  loss.  In  the  midst  of  his  preparations  Duke  Bernard 
died  suddenly,  on  July  18,  1639,  only  thirty-six  years  old.  It 
was  generally  believed  that  he  had  been  poisoned  by  a  secret  agent 
of  France,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  this  was  the  case,  except 
that  a  French  army  instantly  marched  into  Alsatia  and  held  tlie 
country. 

Duke  Bernard's  successes,  nevertheless,  had  drawn  a  part  of 
the  imperialists  from  northern  Germany,  and  in  1638  Baner, 
having  recruited  his  army,  marched  through  Brandenburg  and 
Saxony  into  the  heart  of  Bohemia,  burning  and  plundering  as  he 
went  with  no  less  barbarity  than  Tilly  or  Wallenstein.    Although 


END    OF    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR         291 

1639-1645 

repulsed  in  1639,  near  Prague,  by  the  Archduke  Leopold  (Fer- 
dinand III.'s  brother),  he  only  retired  as  far  as  Thuringia,  where 
he  was  again  strengthened  by  Hessian  and  French  troops.  In  this 
condition  of  affairs  Ferdinand  III.  called  a  diet,  which  met  at  Ratis- 
bon  in  the  autumn  of  1640.  A  majority  of  the  Protestant  members 
united  with  the  Catholics  in  their  enmity  to  Sweden  and  France, 
but  they  seemed  incapable  of  taking  any  measures  to  put  an  end  to 
the  dreadful  war.  Month  after  month  went  by  and  nothing  was 
done. 

Then  Baner  conceived  the  bold  design  of  capturing  the  em- 
peror and  the  diet.  He  made  a  winter  march  with  such  skill  and 
swiftness  that  he  appeared  before  the  walls  of  Ratisbon  at  the 
same  moment  with  the  first  news  of  his  movement.  Nothing  but 
a  sudden  thaw  and  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice  in  the  Danube  pre- 
vented him  from  being  successful.  In  May,  1641,  he  died,  his  army 
broke  up,  and  the  emperor  began  to  recover  some  of  the  lost  ground. 
Several  of  the  Protestant  princes  showed  signs  of  submission,  and 
ambassadors  from  Austria,  France,  and  Sweden  met  at  Hamburg  to 
decide  where  and  how  a  peace  congress  might  be  held. 

In  1642  the  Swedish  army  was  reorganized  under  the  command 
of  Torstenson,  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  many  distinguished  gen- 
erals of  the  time.  Although  he  was  a  constant  sufferer  from  gout 
and  had  to  be  carried  in  a  litter,  he  was  no  less  rapid  than  daring 
and  successful  in  all  his  military  operations.  His  first  campaign 
was  through  Silesia  and  Bohemia,  almost  to  the  gates  of  Vienna; 
then,  returning  through  Saxony,  toward  the  close  of  the  year  he 
almost  annihilated  the  army  of  Piccolomini  before  the  walls  of 
Leipzig,  The  Elector  John  George,  fighting  on  the  Catholic  side, 
was  forced  to  take  refuge  in  Bohemia. 

Denmark  having  declared  war  against  Sweden,  Torstenson 
made  a  campaign  in  Holstein  and  Jutland  in  1643,  in  conjunction 
with  a  Swedish  fleet  on  the  coast,  and  soon  brought  Denmark  to 
terms.  The  imperialist  general,  Gallas,  followed  him,  but  was  easily 
defeated,  and  then  Torstenson,  in  turn,  followed  him  back  through 
Bohemia  into  Austria.  In  March,  1645,  the  Swedish  army  won 
such  a  splendid  victory  near  Tabor  that  Ferdinand  III.  had  scarcely 
any  troops  left  to  oppose  their  march.  Again  Torstenson  appeared 
before  Vienna,  and  was  about  commencing  the  siege  of  the  city 
when  a  pestilence  broke  out  among  his  troops  and  compelled  him 
to  retire,  as  before,  through  Saxony.     Worn  out  with  the  fatigues 


299  GERMANY 

1645-1648 

of  his  marches,  he  died  before  the  end  of  the  year,  and  the  command 
was  given  to  General  Wrangel. 

During  this  time  the  French,  under  the  famous  marshals, 
Turenne  and  Conde,  had  not  only  maintained  themselves  in  Alsatia, 
but  had  crossed  the  Rhine  and  ravaged  Baden,  the  Palatinate, 
Wurtemberg,  and  part  of  Franconia.  Although  badly  defeated  by 
the  Bavarians  in  the  early  part  of  1645,  they  were  reinforced  by  the 
Swedes  and  Hessians,  and  before  the  close  of  the  year  won  such  a 
victory  over  the  united  imperialist  forces,  not  far  from  Donauworth, 
that  all  Bavaria  lay  open  to  them.  The  effect  of  these  French  suc- 
cesses, and  of  those  of  the  Swedes  under  Torstenson,  was  to  de- 
prive Ferdinand  III.  of  nearly  his  whole  military  strength. 

The  chief  obstacle  to  peace — the  power  of  the  Hapsburgs — 
now  seemed  to  be  broken  down.  The  wanton  and  tremendous 
effort  made  to  crush  out  Protestantism  in  Germany,  although  helped 
by  the  selfishness,  the  cowardice,  or  the  miserable  jealousy  of  so 
many  Protestant  princes,  had  signally  failed,  owing  to  the  inter- 
vention of  three  foreign  powers,  one  of  which  was  Catholic.  Yet 
the  peace  congress  which  had  been  agreed  upon  in  1643  had  ac- 
complished nothing.  It  was  divided  into  two  bodies:  the  ambas- 
sadors of  the  emperor  were  to  negotiate  at  Osnabriick  with  Sweden, 
as  the  representative  of  the  Protestant  powers,  and  at  Miinster  with 
France,  as  the  representative  of  the  Catholic  powers  which  desired 
peace.  Two  more  years  elapsed  before  all  the  ambassadors  came 
together,  and  then  a  great  deal  of  time  was  spent  in  arranging 
questions  of  rank,  title,  and  ceremony,  which  seem  to  have  been 
considered  much  more  important  than  the  weal  or  woe  of  a  whole 
people.  Spain,  Holland,  Venice,  Poland,  and  Denmark  also  sent 
representatives,  and  about  the  end  of  1645  the  congress  was  suffi- 
ciently organized  to  commence  its  labors.  But  as  the  war  was  still 
being  waged  with  as  much  fury  as  ever,  one  side  waited  and  then 
the  other  for  the  result  of  battles  and  campaigns ;  and  so  two  more 
years  were  squandered. 

After  the  armistice  with  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  the  Swedish 
general,  Wrangel,  marched  into  Bohemia,  where  he  gained  so  many 
advantages  that  Maximilian  finally  took  sides  again  with  the  em- 
peror and  drove  the  Swedes  into  northern  Germany.  Then,  early 
in  1648,  Wrangel  effected  a  junction  with  Marshal  Turenne,  and 
the  combined  Swedish  and  French  armies  overran  all  Bavaria, 
defeated  the  imperialists  in  a  bloody  battle,  and  stood  ready  to 


END    OF     THIRTY    YEARS'     WAR         293 

1648 

invade  Austria.  At  the  same  time  Konigsmark,  with  another 
Swedish  army,  entered  Bohemia,  stormed  and  took  half  the  city 
of  Prague,  and  only  waited  the  approach  of  Wrangel  and  Turenne 
to  join  them  in  a  combined  movement  upon  Vienna.  But  before 
this  movement  could  be  executed  Ferdinand  III.  had  decided  to 
yield.  His  ambassadors  at  Osnabriick  and  Munster  had  received 
instructions,  and  lost  no  time  in  acting  upon  them.  The  proclama- 
tion of  peace,  after  such  heartless  delays,  came  suddenly  and  put 
an  end  to  thirty  years  of  war. 

The  Peace  of  Westphalia,  as  it  is  called,  was  concluded  on 
October  24,  1648.  Inasmuch  as  its  provisions  extended  not  to 
Germany  alone,  but  fixed  the  political  relations  of  Europe  for 
a  period  of  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  they  must  be 
briefly  stated.  France  and  Sweden,  as  the  military  powers  which 
were  victorious  in  the  end,  sought  to  draw  the  greatest  advantages 
from  the  necessities  of  Germany,  but  France  opposed  any  settle- 
ment of  the  religious  questions  (in  order  to  keep  a  chance  open 
for  future  interference),  and  Sweden  demanded  an  immediate  and 
final  settlement,  which  was  agreed  to.  France  received  Lorraine, 
with  the  cities  of  Metz,  Toul,  and  Verdun,  which  she  had  held 
nearly  a  hundred  years,  all  southern  Alsatia  with  the  fortress  of 
Breisach,  the  right  of  appointing  the  governors  of  ten  German 
cities,  and  other  rights  which  practically  placed  nearly  the  whole 
of  Alsatia  in  her  power.  Sweden  received  the  western  half  of 
Pomerania,  with  the  cities  of  Wismar  and  Stettin,  and  the  coast 
between  Bremen  and  Hamburg,  together  with  an  indemnity  of 
five  million  thalers.  Electoral  Saxony  received  Lusatia  and  part 
of  the  territory  of  Magdeburg.  Brandenburg  received  the  other 
half  of  Pomerania,  the  archbishopric  of  Magdeburg,  the  bishoprics 
of  Minden  and  Halberstadt,  and  other  territory  which  had  belonged 
to  the  Catholic  Church.  Additions  were  made  to  the  domains  of 
Mecklenburg,  Brunswick,  and  Hesse-Cassel,  and  the  latter  was  also 
awarded  an  indemmity  of  six  hundred  thousand  thalers.  Bavaria 
received  the  upper  Palatinate  (north  of  the  Danube)  and  the  title 
of  elector.  Baden,  Wurtemberg,  and  Nassau  were  restored  to  their 
banished  rulers.  Other  petty  states  were  confirmed  in  the  position 
which  they  had  occupied  before  the  war,  and  the  independence  of 
Switzerland  and  Holland  was  acknowledged. 

In  regard  to  religion  the  results  were  much  more  important 
to  the  world.     Both  Calvinists  and  Lutherans  received  entire  free- 


i94t 


GERMANY 


1648 

dom  of  worship  and  equal  civil  rights  with  the  Catholics.  Ferdinand 
II.'s  "  Edict  of  Restitution  "  was  withdrawn,  and  the  territories 
which  had  been  secularized  up  to  the  year  1624  were  not  given 
back  to  the  church.  Universal  amnesty  was  decreed  for  everything 
which  had  happened  during  the  war,  except  for  the  Austrian  Prot- 
estants, whose  possessions  were  not  restored  to  them.  The  em- 
peror retained  the  authority  of  deciding  questions  of  war  and  peace, 
taxation,  defenses,  alliances,  etc.,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  diet. 
He  acknowledged  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  the  several  princes 
in  their  own  states,  and  conceded  to  them  the  right  of  forming 


»  Vu --! 


alliances  among  themselves  or  with  foreign  powers.  A  special  ar- 
ticle of  the  treaty  prohibited  all  persons  from  writing,  speaking,  or 
teaching  anything  contrary  to  its  provisions. 

The  Pope  (at  that  time  Innocent  X.)  declared  the  Treaty 
of  Westphalia  null  and  void,  and  issued  a  bull  against  its  observance. 
The  parties  to  the  treaty,  however,  did  not  allow  this  bull  to  be 
published  in  Germany.  The  Catholics  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
(except  Austria,  Styria,  and  the  Tyrol)  had  suffered  almost  as 
severely  as  the  Protestants,  and  would  have  welcomed  the  return 
of  peace  upon  any  terms  which  simply  left  their  faith  free.  The 
Peace  of  1648,  from  a  religious  point  of  view,  yielded  even  more 


END     OF    THIRTY     YEARS'     WAR         296 

1648 

to  the  Protestants  than  the  Religious  Peace  of  Augsburg,  granted 
by  Charles  V.  in  1555. 

Thirty  years  of  war!  The  slaughters  of  Rome's  worst  em- 
perors, the  persecution  of  the  Christians  under  Nero  and  Diocletian, 
the  invasions  of  the  Huns  and  Magyars,  the  long  struggle  of  the 
Guelphs  and  Ghibellines,  left  no  such  desolation  behind  them.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  century  the  population  of  the  German  Empire 
was  about  30,000,000.  When  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  was  declared 
it  was  scarcely  more  than  12,000,000!  Electoral  Saxony,  alone, 
lost  900,000  lives  in  two  years.  The  population  of  Augsburg  had 
diminished  from  80,000  to  18,000,  and  out  of  500,000  inhabitants 
Wiirtemberg  had  but  48,000  left.  The  city  of  Berlin  contained  but 
300  citizens,  the  whole  of  the  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine  but  200 
farmers.  In  Hesse-Cassel  17  cities,  47  castles,  and  300  villages 
were  entirely  destroyed  by  fire.  Thousands  of  villages,  in  all  parts 
of  the  country,  had  but  four  or  five  families  left  out  of  hundreds, 
and  landed  property  sank  to  about  one-twentieth  of  its  former  value. 
Franconia  was  so  depopulated  that  an  assembly  held  in  Nuremberg 
ordered  the  Catholic  priests  to  marry,  and  permitted  all  other  men 
to  have  two  wives.  The  horses,  cattle,  and  sheep  were  exterminated 
in  many  districts,  the  supplies  of  grain  were  at  an  end,  even  for 
sowing,  and  large  cultivated  tracts  had  relapsed  into  a  wilderness. 
Even  the  orchards  and  vineyards  had  been  wantonly  destroyed 
wherever  the  armies  had  passed.  So  terrible  was  the  ravage  that 
in  a  great  many  localities  the  same  amount  of  population,  cattle, 
acres  of  cultivated  land,  and  general  prosperity  was  not  restored  until 
two  centuries  afterward! 

This  settlement  of  the  losses  of  Germany,  however,  was  but  a 
small  part  of  the  suffering  endured.  Only  two  commanders,  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  and  Duke  Bernard  of  Saxe- Weimar,  preserved 
rigid  discipline  among  their  troops,  and  prevented  them  from  plun- 
dering the  people.  All  others  allowed,  or  were  powerless  to  prevent, 
the  most  savage  outrages.  During  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  oi 
the  war  both  Protestants  and  Catholics  vied  with  each  other  in  deeds 
of  barbarity;  the  soldiers  were  nothing  but  highway  robbers,  who 
maimed  and  tortured  the  country  people  to  make  them  give  up 
their  last  remaining  property,  and  drove  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
them  into  the  woods  and  mountains  to  die  miserably  or  live  as  half- 
savages.  Multitudes  of  others  flocked  to  the  cities  for  refuge,  only 
to  be  visited  by  fire  and  famine.    In  the  year  1637,  when  Ferdinand 


296  GERMANY 

1648 

II.  died,  the  want  was  so  great  that  men  devoured  each  other,  and 
even  hunted  down  human  beings  Hke  deer  or  hares,  in  order  to 
feed  upon  them.  Great  numbers  committed  suicide,  to  avoid  a  slow 
death  by  hunger.  On  the  island  of  Riigen  many  poor  creatures 
were  found  dead,  with  their  mouths  full  of  grass,  and  in  some 
districts  attempts  were  made  to  knead  earth  into  bread.  Then  fol- 
lowed a  pestilence  which  carried  off  a  large  proportion  of  the  sur- 
vivors. A  writer  of  the  time  exclaims:  "A  thousand  times  ten 
thousand  souls,  the  spirits  of  innocent  children  butchered  in  this 
unholy  war,  cry  day  and  night  unto  God  for  vengeance,  and  cease 
not :  while  those  who  have  caused  all  these  miseries  live  in  peace 
and  freedom,  and  the  shout  of  revelry  and  the  voice  of  music  are 
heard  in  their  dwellings !  " 

In  character,  in  intelligence,  and  in  morality  the  German  peo- 
ple were  set  back  two  hundred  years.  All  branches  of  industry  had 
declined,  commerce  had  almost  entirely  ceased,  literature  and  the 
arts  were  suppressed,  and  except  the  astronomical  discoveries  of 
Copernicus  and  Kepler  there  was  no  contribution  to  human  knowl- 
edge. Even  the  modem  High  German  language,  which  Luther  had 
made  the  classic  tongue  of  the  land,  seemed  to  be  on  the  point  of 
perishing.  Spaniards  and  Italians  on  the  Catholic,  Swedes  and 
French  on  the  Protestant  side,  flooded  the  country  with  foreign 
words  and  expressions,  the  use  of  which  soon  became  an  affectation 
with  the  nobility,  who  did  their  best  to  destroy  their  native  language. 
Wallenstein's  letters  to  the  emperor  were  a  curious  mixture  of 
German,  French,  Spanish,  Italian,  and  Latin. 

The  nobles,  who  in  former  centuries  had  maintained  a  certain 
amount  of  independence,  were  almost  as  much  demoralized  as  the 
people,  and  when  every  little  prince  began  to  imitate  Louis  XIV. 
and  set  up  his  own  Versailles,  the  nobles  in  his  territory  became 
his  courtiers  and  government  officials.  As  for  the  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple, their  spirit  was  broken.  For  a  time  they  gave  up  even  the 
longing  for  rights  which  they  had  lost,  and  taught  their  children 
abject  obedience  in  order  that  they  might  simply  live. 

Politically,  the  change  was  no  less  disastrous.  The  ambition 
of  the  House  of  Hapsburg,  it  is  true,  had  brought  its  own  punish- 
ment; the  imperial  dignity  was  secured  to  it,  but  henceforth  the 
head  of  the  "  Holy  Roman  Empire  "  was  not  much  more  than  a 
shadow.  Each  petty  state  became,  practically,  an  independent  na- 
tion, with  power  to  establish  its  own  foreign  relations,  make  war 


END    OF    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR         297 

1648 

and  contract  alliances.  After  the  Thirty  Years'  War  Germany  was 
composed  of  9  electorates,  24  religious  principalities  (Catholic),  9 
princely  abbots,  10  princely  abbesses,  24  princes  with  seat  and  vote 
in  the  diet,  13  princes  without  seat  and  vote,  62  counts  of  the 
empire,  51  cities  of  the  empire,  and  about  1000  knights  of  the 
empire.  These  last,  however,  no  longer  possessed  any  political 
power.  But,  without  them,  there  were  203  more  or  less  independent, 
jealous,  and  conflicting  states,  united  by  a  bond  which  was  more 
imaginary  than  real.  In  reality  the  result  of  the  war  had  been 
greatly  to  promote  the  transference  of  power  from  the  head  (em- 
peror) to  the  members  (princes),  a  process  which  had  been  steadily 
going  on  since  the  fifteenth  century.  Each  prince  pursued  his  own 
selfish  independent  policy  without  thought  for  the  good  of  the  whole 
empire.  Such  decentralization  also  greatly  weakened  the  empire, 
so  that  it  could  not  hold  its  own  in  the  rival  struggle  of  European 
powers,  and  could  not  regain  the  proud  position  which  it  had 
held  under  Charles  V.  and  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  empire  be- 
came the  joke  of  Europe.  The  most  eminent  lawyer  of  the  age 
(Pufendorf)  declared  it  to  be  "an  irregular  sort  of  a  body,  like 
a  monster."  Voltaire  with  much  truth  said  that  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  was  neither  holy,  nor  Roman,  nor  an  empire.  In  fact,  it 
continued  to  decay  and  decline  in  power  until  it  met  its  deserved 
destruction  at  the  hands  of  Napoleon. 


Chapter    XXIX 

DECLINE   OF  IMPERIAL   POWER.     1648-1701 

THE  Peace  of  Westphalia  coincides  with  the  beginning  of 
great  changes  throughout  Europe.  The  leading  position 
on  the  continent  which  Germany  had  preserved  from 
the  Treaty  of  Verdun  until  the  accession  of  Charles  V. — nearly 
seven  hundred  years — was  lost  beyond  recovery.  It  had  passed 
into  the  hands  of  France,  where  Louis  XIV.  was  just  commencing 
his  long  and  brilliant  reign.  Spain,  after  a  hundred  years  of  su- 
premacy, was  in  a  rapid  decline.  The  new  republic  of  Holland  was 
mistress  of  the  seas,  and  Sweden  was  the  great  power  of  northern 
Europe.  In  England  Charles  I.  had  lost  his  throne,  and  Cromwell 
was  at  work  laying  the  foundation  of  a  broader  and  firmer  power 
than  either  the  Tudors  or  the  Stuarts  had  ever  built.  Poland  was 
still  a  large  and  strong  kingdom,  and  Russia  was  only  beginning  to 
attract  the  notice  of  other  nations.  The  Italian  republics  had  seen 
their  best  days.  Even  the  power  of  Venice  was  slowly  crumbling  to 
pieces.  The  coast  of  America,  from  Maine  to  Virginia,  was  dotted 
with  little  English,  Dutch,  and  Swedish  settlements,  only  a  few 
of  which  had  safely  passed  through  their  first  struggle  for  existence. 
The  history  of  Germany  during  the  remainder  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  furnishes  few  events  upon  which  the  intelligent  and 
patriotic  German  of  to-day  can  look  back  with  any  satisfaction. 
Austria  was  the  principal  power,  through  her  territory  and  popula- 
tion, as  well  as  the  imperial  dignity,  which  was  thenceforth  ac- 
corded to  her  as  a  matter  of  habit.  The  provision  of  religious 
liberty  had  not  been  extended  to  her  people,  who  were  now  forcibly 
made  Catholic.  The  former  legislative  assemblies,  even  the  priv- 
ileges of  the  nobles,  had  been  suppressed,  and  the  rule  of  the  Haps- 
burgs  was  as  absolute  a  despotism  as  that  of  Louis  XIV.  When 
Ferdinand  III.  died,  in  1657,  the  "  Great  Monarch,"  as  the  French 
call  Louis  XIV.,  made  an  attempt  to  be  elected  his  successor.  He  se- 
cured  the   votes  of   the  archbishops   of   Mayence,   Treves,   and 

SO8 


DECLINE     OF     IMPERIAL     POWER       299 

1657-1658 

Cologne,  and  might  have  carried  the  day  but  for  the  determined 
resistance  of  the  electors  of  Brandenburg  and  Saxony.  Even  had  he 
been  successful,  it  is  doubtful  whether  his  influence  over  most  of  the 
German  princes  would  have  been  greater  than  it  was  in  reality. 

Ferdinand's  son,  Leopold  L,  a  stupid,  weak-minded  youth  of 
eighteen,  was  chosen  emperor  in  1658.  Like  his  ancestor,  Frederick 
III,,  whom  he  most  resembled,  his  reign  was  as  long  as  it  was  use- 
less. Until  the  year  1705  he  was  the  imaginary  ruler  of  an  imag- 
inary empire.  The  Hapsburgs  and  the  Bourbons  being  absolute, 
all  the  ruling  princes,  even  the  best  of  them,  introduced  the  same 
system  into  their  territories,  and  the  participation  of  the  other 
classes  of  the  people  in  the  government  ceased.  The  cities  followed 
this  example,  and  their  burgomasters  and  councilors  became  a  sort 
of  aristocracy,  more  or  less  arbitrary  in  character.  The  condition 
of  the  people,  therefore,  depended  entirely  on  the  princes,  priests, 
or  other  officials  who  governed  them.  One  state  or  city  might 
be  orderly  and  prosperous,  while  another  was  oppressed  and  checked 
in  its  growth.  A  few  of  the  rulers  were  wise  and  humane.  Ernest 
the  Pious  of  Gotha  was  a  father  to  his  land  during  his  long  reign ; 
in  Hesse,  Brunswick,  and  Anhalt  learning  was  encouraged,  and 
Frederick  William  of  Brandenburg  set  his  face  against  the  cor- 
rupting influences  of  France.  These  small  states  were  exceptions, 
yet  they  kept  alive  what  of  hope  and  strength  and  character  was 
left  to  Germany,  and  were  the  seeds  of  her  regeneration  in  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  country  the  people  relapsed 
into  ignorance  and  brutality,  and  the  higher  classes  assumed  the 
stiff,  formal,  artificial  manners  which  nearly  all  Europe  borrowed 
from  the  court  of  Louis  XIV.  Public  buildings,  churches,  and 
schools  were  allowed  to  stand  as  ruins,  while  the  petty  sovereign 
built  his  stately  palace,  laid  out  his  park  in  the  style  of  Versailles, 
and  held  his  splendid  and  ridiculous  festivals.  Although  Saxony 
had  been  impoverished  and  almost  depopulated,  the  elector,  John 
George  II.,  squandered  all  the  revenues  of  the  land  on  banquets, 
hunting-parties,  fireworks,  and  collections  of  curiosities,  until  his 
treasury  was  hopelessly  bankrupt.  Another  prince  made  his  Italian 
singing  master  prime  minister,  and  others  again  surrendered  their 
lives  and  the  happiness  of  their  people  to  influences  which  were  still 
more  disastrous. 

The  one  historical  character  among  the  German  rulers  of  this 


800  GERMANY 

1656-1672 

time  is  Frederick  William  of  Brandenburg,  who  is  generally  called 
"The  Great  Elector."  In  bravery,  energy,  and  administrative 
ability  he  was  the  first  worthy  successor  of  Frederick  of  Hohen- 
zoUern.  No  sooner  had  peace  been  declared  than  he  set  to  work  to 
restore  order  to  his  wasted  and  disturbed  territory.  He  imitated 
Sweden  in  organizing  a  standing  army,  small  at  first,  but  admirably 
disciplined;  he  introduced  a  regfular  system  of  taxation,  of  police, 
and  of  justice,  and  encouraged  trade  and  industry  in  all  possible 
ways.  In  a  few  years  a  war  between  Sweden  and  Poland  gave  him 
the  opportunity  of  interfering,  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  the  re- 
mainder of  Pomerania.  He  first  marched  to  Konigsberg,  the  capital 
of  the  duchy  of  Prussia,  which  belonged  to  Brandenburg,  but  was 
still  under  the  sovereignty  of  Poland.  Allying  himself  first  with 
the  Swedes,  he  helped  win  a  great  victory  at  Warsaw  in  July, 
1656.  He  then  found  it  to  his  advantage  to  go  over  to  the  side  of 
John  Casimir,  King  of  Poland,  and  secured  from  him  as  a  reward 
the  complete  independence  of  Prussia.  He  no  longer  had  to  pay 
homage  to  the  King  of  Poland  as  his  feudal  overlord.  This  was 
his  only  gain  from  the  war;  for,  by  the  peace  in  1660,  he  was 
forced  to  give  up  western  Pomerania,  which  he  had  in  the  mean- 
time conquered  from  Sweden. 

Louis  XIV.  of  France  was  by  this  time  aware  that  his  king- 
dom had  nothing  to  fear  from  any  of  its  neighbors,  and  might 
easily  be  enlarged  at  their  expense.  In  1667  he  began  his  wars  of 
conquest  by  laying  claim  to  Brabant,  and  instantly  sending  Turenne 
and  Conde  over  the  frontier.  A  number  of  fortresses,  unprepared 
for  resistance,  fell  into  their  hands.  But  Holland,  England,  and 
Sweden  formed  an  alliance  against  France,  and  the  war  terminated 
in  1668  by  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  Louis'  next  step  was  to 
ally  himself  with  England  and  Sweden  against  Holland,  on  the 
ground  that  a  republic,  by  furnishing  a  place  of  refuge  for  political 
fugitives,  was  dangerous  to  monarchies.  In  1672  he  entered  Hol- 
land with  an  army  of  1 18,000  men,  took  Gelders,  Utrecht,  and  other 
strongly  fortified  places,  and  would  soon  have  made  himself  master 
of  the  country  if  its  inhabitants  had  not  shown  themselves  capable 
of  the  sublimest  courage  and  self-sacrifice.  They  were  victorious 
over  France  and  England  on  the  sea,  and  defended  themselves  stub- 
bornly on  the  land.  Even  the  German  Archbishop  of  Cologne  and 
Bishop  of  Munster  furnished  troops  to  Louis  XIV.  and  the  Emperor 
Leopold  promised  to  remain  neutral.    Then  Frederick  William  of 


i     i 


DECLINE     OF     IMPERIAL     POWER       301 

1672-1679 

Brandenburg  allied  himself  with  Holland,  and  so  wrought  upon  the 
emperor  by  representing  the  danger  to  Germany  from  the  success 
of  France  that  the  latter  sent  an  army  under  General  Montecuccoli 
to  the  Rhine.  But  the  Austrian  troops  remained  inactive;  Louis 
XIV.  purchased  the  support  of  the  archbishops  of  Mayence  and 
Treves;  Westphalia  was  invaded  by  the  French,  and  in  1673  Fred- 
erick William  was  forced  to  sign  a  treaty  of  neutrality. 

About  this  time  Holland  was  strengthened  by  the  alliance  of 
Spain,  and  the  Emperor  Leopold,  alarmed  at  the  continual  invasions 
of  German  territory  on  the  Upper  Rhine,  ordered  Montecuccoli 
to  make  war  in  earnest.  In  1674  the  diet  formally  declared  war 
against  France,  and  Frederick  William  marched  with  16,000  men 
to  the  Palatinate,  which  Marshal  Turenne  had  ravaged  with  fire 
and  sword.  The  French  were  driven  back  and  even  out  of  Alsatia 
for  a  time ;  but  they  returned  the  following  year,  and  were  success- 
ful until  the  month  of  July,  when  Turenne  found  his  death  on  the 
soil  which  he  had  turned  into  a  desert.  Before  this  happened  Fred- 
erick William  had  been  recalled  in  all  haste  to  Brandenburg,  where 
the  Swedes,  instigated  by  France,  were  wasting  the  land  with  a 
barbarity  equal  to  Turenne's.  His  march  was  so  swift  that  he  found 
the  enemy  scattered.  Dividing  and  driving  them  before  him,  on 
June  18,  1675,  at  Fehrbellin,  with  only  7000  men,  he  attacked 
the  main  Swedish  army,  numbering  more  than  double  that 
number.  For  three  hours  the  battle  raged  with  the  greatest  fury; 
Frederick  William  fought  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  who  more  than 
once  cut  him  out  from  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  and  the  result  was  a 
splendid  victory.  The  fame  of  this  achievement  rang  through  all 
Europe,  and  Brandenburg  was  thenceforth  mentioned  with  the 
respect  due  to  an  independent  power. 

Frederick  William  continued  the  war  for  two  years  longer, 
gradually  acquiring  possession  of  all  Swedish  Pomerania,  including 
Stettin  and  the  other  cities  on  the  coast.  He  even  built  a  small 
fleet,  and  undertook  to  dispute  the  supremacy  of  Sweden  on  the 
Baltic.  During  this  time  the  war  with  France  was  continued  on 
the  Upper  Rhine,  with  varying  fortunes.  Though  repulsed  and 
held  in  check  after  Turenne's  death,  the  French  burned  five  cities 
and  several  hundred  villages  west  of  the  Rhine,  and  in  1677  cap- 
tured Freiburg,  in  Baden.  But  Louis  XIV.  began  to  be  tired  of  the 
war,  especially  as  Holland  proved  to  be  unconquerable.  Negotia- 
tions  for  peace  were  commenced   in    1678,   and  on  February  5, 


302  GERMANY 

1679-1683 

1679,  the  "  Peace  of  Nymwegen  "  was  concluded  with  Holland, 
Spain,  and  the  German  Empire,  but  not  with  Brandenburg! 

Frederick  William  at  first  determined  to  carry  on  the  war  alone, 
but  the  French  had  already  laid  waste  Westphalia,  and  in  1679  he 
was  forced  to  accept  a  peace  which  required  that  he  should  restore 
nearly  the  whole  of  Pomerania  to  Sweden.  Austria,  moreover,  took 
possession  of  several  small  principalities  in  Silesia  which  had  fallen 
to  Brandenburg  by  inheritance.  Thus  did  the  Hapsburgs  repay 
the  support  which  the  Hohenzollems  had  faithfully  rendered  to 
them  for  four  hundred  years.  Thenceforth  the  two  houses  were 
enemies,  and  they  were  soon  to  become  irreconcilable  rivals.  Leo- 
pold I.  again  betrayed  Germany  in  the  Peace  of  Nymwegen  by 
yielding  the  city  and  fortress  of  Freiburg  to  France. 

Louis  XIV.,  nevertheless,  was  not  content  with  this  acquisition. 
He  determined  to  possess  the  remaining  cities  of  Alsatia  which 
belonged  to  Germany.  The  Catholic  Bishop  of  Strassburg  was  his 
secret  agent,  and  three  of  the  magistrates  of  the  city  were  bribed 
to  assist.  In  the  autumn  of  1681,  when  nearly  all  the  merchants 
were  absent,  attending  the  fair  at  Frankfort,  a  powerful  French 
army,  which  had  been  secretly  collected  in  Lorraine,  suddenly  ap- 
peared before  Strassburg.  Between  force  outside  and  treachery 
within  the  walls,  the  city  surrendered.  On  October  23,  Louis 
XIV.  made  his  triumphant  entry,  and  was  hailed  by  the  bishop  with 
the  words :  "  Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace, 
for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation ! "  The  great  cathedral, 
which  had  long  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Protestants,  was 
g^ven  up  to  this  bishop,  all  Protestant  functionaries  were  de- 
prived of  their  offices,  and  the  clergymen  driven  from  the 
city.  French  names  were  given  to  the  streets,  and  the  inhabitants 
were  commanded,  under  heavy  penalties,  to  lay  aside  their  German 
costume  and  adopt  the  fashions  of  France.  No  official  claim  or 
declaration  of  war  preceded  this  robbery,  but  the  effect  which  it 
produced  throughout  Germany  was  comparatively  slight.  The  peo- 
ple had  been  long  accustomed  to  violence  and  outrage,  and  the  des- 
potic independence  of  each  state  suppressed  anything  like  a  national 
sentiment. 

Leopold  I.  called  upon  the  princes  of  the  empire  to  declare  war 
against  France,  but  met  with  little  support.  Frederick  William 
positively  refused,  as  he  had  been  shamefully  excepted  from  the 
Peace  of  Nymwegen.     He  gave  as  a  reason,  however,  the  great 


I 
I 


DECLINE     OF     IMPERIAL     POWER       303 

1683-1687 

danger  which  menaced  Germany  from  a  new,  Turkish  invasion,  and 
offered  to  send  an  army  to  the  support  of  Austria.  The  emperor, 
equally  stubborn  and  jealous,  declined  this  offer,  although  his  own 
dominions  were  on  the  verge  of  ruin. 

The  Turks  had  remained  quiet  during  the  whole  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  when  they  might  easily  have  conquered  Austria.  In 
the  early  part  of  Leopold's  reign  they  recommenced  their  invasions, 
which  were  terminated,  in  1664,  by  a  truce  of  twenty  years.  Before 
the  period  came  to  an  end  the  Hungarians,  driven  to  desperation  by 
Leopold's  misrule,  especially  his  persecution  of  the  Protestants,  rose 
in  rebellion.  The  Turks  came  to  an  understanding  with  them,  and 
early  in  1683  an  army  of  more  than  200,000  men,  commanded  by 
the  Grand  Vizier  Kara  Mustapha,  marched  up  the  Danube,  carry- 
ing everything  before  it,  and  encamped  around  the  walls  of  Vienna. 
There  is  good  evidence  that  the  sultan,  Mohammed  IV.,  was 
strongly  encouraged  by  Louis  XIV.  to  make  this  movement.  Leo- 
pold fled  at  the  approach  of  the  Turks,  leaving  his  capital  to  its 
fate.  For  two  months  Count  Stahremberg,  with  only  7000  armed 
citizens  and  6000  mercenary  soldiers  under  his  command,  held  the 
fortifications  against  the  overwhelming  force  of  the  enemy;  then, 
when  further  resistance  was  becoming  hopeless,  help  suddenly  ap- 
peared. An  army  commanded  by  Duke  Charles  of  Lorraine,  an- 
other under  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  and  a  third,  composed  of  20,000 
Poles,  headed  by  their  king,  John  Sobieski,  reached  Vienna  about 
the  same  time.  The  decisive  battle  was  fought  on  September 
12,  1683,  ^^^  ended  with  the  total  defeat  of  the  Turks,  who 
fled  in  wild  disorder  back  into  Hungary,  leaving  their  camp,  treas- 
ures, and  supplies  to  the  value  of  ten  million  dollars  in  the  hands 
of  the  conquerors. 

The  deliverance  of  Vienna  was  due  chiefly  to  John  Sobieski, 
yet,  when  Leopold  I.  returned  to  the  city  which  he  had  deserted, 
he  treated  the  Polish  king  with  coldness  and  haughtiness,  never 
once  thanking  him  for  his  generous  aid.  The  war  was  continued 
in  the  interest  of  Austria  by  Charles  of  Lorraine  and  Max  Emanuel 
of  Bavaria,  until  1687,  when  a  great  victory  at  Mohacs  in  Hungary 
forced  the  Turks  to  retreat  beyond  the  Danube.  Then  Leopold  I. 
took  brutal  vengeance  on  the  Hungarians,  executing  so  many  of 
their  nobles  that  the  event  is  called  "  the  Shambles  of  Eperies," 
from  the  town  where  it  occurred.  The  Jesuits  were  allowed  to  put 
down  Protestantism  in  their  own  way ;  the  power  and  national  pride 


804  GERMANY 

1687-1699 

of  Hungary  were  trampled  under  foot,  and  a  diet  held  at  Presburg 
declared  that  the  crown  of  the  country  should  thenceforth  belong 
to  the  House  of  Hapsburg. 

In  spite  of  the  defeat  of  the  Turks  in  1687,  they  were  en- 
couraged by  France  to  continue  the  war.  Max  Emanuel  took  Bel- 
g^de  in  1688,  the  Margrave  Ludwig  of  Baden  won  an  important 
victory,  and  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy  (a  grand-nephew  of  Cardinal 
Mazarin,  whom  Louis  XIV.  called,  in  derision,  the  "  little  Abbe  " 
and  to  whom  he  refused  a  military  command)  especially  distin- 
guished himself  as  a  soldier.  After  ten  years  of  varying  fortune 
the  war  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  magnificent  victory  of  Prince 
Eugene  at  Zenta,  in  1697.  It  was  followed  by  the  Treaty  of  Carlo- 
witz,  in  1699,  in  which  Turkey  gave  up  Transylvania  and  the 
Slavonic  provinces  to  Austria,  Morea  and  Dalmatia  to  Venice,  and 
agreed  to  a  truce  of  twenty-five  years. 

While  the  best  strength  of  Germany  was  engaged  in  this  Turk- 
ish war,  Louis  XIV.  was  busy  in  carrying  out  his  plans  of  conquest. 
He  claimed  the  Palatinate  of  the  Rhine  for  his  brother,  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  and  also  attempted  to  make  one  of  his  agents  Archbishop 
of  Cologne.  In  1686  an  alliance  was  formed  between  Leopold  I., 
several  of  the  German  states,  Holland,  Spain,  and  Sweden,  to  defend 
themselves  against  the  aggressions  of  France ;  but  nothing  was  ac- 
complished by  the  negotiations  which  followed.  Finally,  in  1688, 
two  powerful  French  armies  suddenly  appeared  upon  the  Rhine: 
one  took  possession  of  the  territory  of  Treves  and  Cologne,  the 
other  marched  through  the  Palatinate  into  Franconia  and  Wiirtem- 
berg.  But  the  demands  of  Louis  XIV.  were  not  acceded  to.  The 
preparation  for  war  was  so  general  on  the  part  of  the  allied  coun- 
tries that  it  was  evident  his  conquests  could  not  be  held;  so  he 
determined,  at  least,  to  ruin  the  territory  before  giving  it  up. 

No  more  wanton  and  barbarous  deed  was  ever  perpetrated. 
The  "  Great  Monarch,"  the  model  of  elegance  and  refinement  for  all 
Europe,  was  guilty  of  brutality  beyond  what  is  recorded  of  the  most 
savage  chieftains.  The  vines  were  pulled  up  by  the  roots  and 
destroyed ;  the  fruit  trees  were  cut  down,  the  villages  burned  to  the 
ground,  and  400,000  persons  were  made  beggars,  while  many  more 
were  slain  in  cold  blood.  The  castle  of  Heidelberg,  one  of'  the  most 
splendid  monuments  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  all  Europe,  was  blown 
up  with  gunpowder ;  the  people  of  Mannheim  were  compelled  to  pull 
down  their  own  fortifications,  after  which  their  city  was  burned; 


a   Q 


W    * 


B6     Ci, 


DECLINE     OF     IMPERIAL     POWER       305 

1688-1697 

Speyer,  with  its  grand  and  venerable  cathedral,  was  razed  to  the 
ground,  and  the  bodies  of  the  emperors  buried  there  were  exhumed 
and  plundered.  While  this  was  going  on  the  German  princes, 
with  a  few  exceptions  (the  "Great  Elector"  being  the  prominent 
one),  were  copying  the  fashions  of  the  French  court,  and  even 
trying  to  unlearn  their  native  language ! 

Frederick  William  of  Brandenburg,  however,  was  spared  the 
knowledge  of  the  worst  features  of  this  outrage.  He  died  the 
same  year,  after  a  reign  of  forty-eight  years,  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
eight.  The  latter  years  of  his  reign  were  devoted  to  the  internal 
development  of  his  state.  He  united  the  Oder  and  Elbe  by  a  canal, 
built  roads  and  bridges,  encouraged  agriculture  and  the  mechanic 
arts,  and  set  a  personal  example  of  industry  and  intelligence  to  his 
people  while  he  governed  them.  His  possessions  were  divided  and 
scattered,  reaching  from  Konigsberg  to  the  Rhine,  but,  taken  col- 
lectively, they  were  larger  than  any  other  German  state  at  the  time, 
except  Austria.  None  of  the  smaller  German  rulers  before  him 
took  such  a  prominent  part  in  the  intercourse  with  foreign  nations. 
He  was  thoroughly  German  in  his  jealousy  of  foreign  rule;  but 
this  did  not  prevent  him  from  helping  to  confirm  Louis  XIV.  in 
his  robbery  of  Strasburg,  out  of  revenge  for  his  own  treatment  by 
Leopold  I.  When  personal  pride  or  personal  interest  was  con- 
cerned the  Hohenzollerns  were  hardly  more  patriotic  than  the  Haps- 
burgs. 

The  German  Empire  raised  an  army  of  about  60,000  men  to 
carry  on  the  war  with  France;  but  its  best  commanders,  Max 
Emanuel  and  Prince  Eugene,  were  fighting  the  Turks,  and  the  first 
campaigns  were  not  successful.  The  other  allied  powers,  Holland, 
England,  and  Spain,  were  equally  unfortunate,  while  France,  com- 
pact and  consolidated  under  one  despotic  head,  easily  held  out  against 
them.  In  1693,  finally,  the  Margrave  Ludwig  of  Baden  obtained 
some  victories  in  southern  Germany  which  forced  the  French  to 
retreat  beyond  the  Rhine.  The  seat  of  war  was  then  gradually 
transferred  to  Flanders,  and  the  task  of  conducting  it  fell  upon  the 
foreign  allies.  At  the  same  time  there  were  battles  in  Spain  and 
Savoy,  and  sea  fights  in  the  British  Channel.  Although  the  for- 
tunes of  Germany  were  influenced  by  these  events,  they  belong  prop- 
erly to  the  history  of  other  countries.  Victory  inclined  sometimes 
to  one  side  and  sometimes  to  the  other ;  the  military  operations  were 
so  extensive  that  there  could  be  no  single  decisive  battle. 


a06  GERMANY 

1697-1701 

All  parties  became  more  or  less  weary  and  exhausted,  and  the 
end  of  it  all  was  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick,  concluded  on  Septem- 
ber 20,  1697.  By  its  provisions  France  retained  Strasburg  and 
the  greater  part  of  Alsatia,  but  gave  up  Freiburg  and  her  other 
conquests  east  of  the  Rhine  in  Baden.  Lorraine  was  restored  to  its 
duke,  but  on  conditions  which  made  it  practically  a  French  province. 
The  most  shameful  clause  of  the  treaty  was  one  which  ordered  that 
the  districts  which  had  been  made  Catholic  by  force  during  the 
invasion  were  to  remain  so. 

While  Germany  was  thus  a  prey  to  external  forces,  a  number 
of  the  reigning  families  in  Europe  became  extinct,  and,  by  a  strange 
whim  of  fate,  bequeathed  their  thrones  to  German  princes.  This 
circumstance,  however,  far  from  proving  beneficial  to  the  Grerman 
Empire,  greatly  contributed  to  estrange  her  native  princes  and  to 
render  their  hereditary  provinces  dependent  upon  their  new 
possessions. 

The  House  of  Oldenburg  had  long  reigned  in  Denmark  and 
directed  its  policy  against  the  empire.  Schleswig  and  Holstein 
were,  as  provinces  subordinate  to  Denmark,  governed  by  a  prince 
of  this  house  in  the  Danish  interest.  In  Sweden  the  Palatine 
dynasty,  raised  (1654)  to  the  throne,  also  pursued  an  anti-German 
system  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  north.  The  House  of  Orange 
was  no  sooner  seated  (1688)  on  the  throne  of  England  than  the 
interests  of  Germany  were  sacrificed  to  those  of  Great  Britain. 

Frederick  Augustus,  brother  to  John  George  IV.,  elector  of 
Saxony,  traveled  over  the  half  of  Europe  during  his  youth.  A 
giant  in  size  and  strength,  he  took  delight  in  the  dangers  and 
pleasures  pursued  by  the  French  gallants  of  that  period.  After 
escaping  all  the  dangers  with  which  he  was  threatened  by  jealous 
Southerns,  he  returned  to  Saxony,  where  (1694)  he  succeeded  his 
brother  on  the  electoral  throne.  Louis  XIV.  was  his  model,  and, 
aided  by  his  favorite,  Fleming,  on  whom  he  had  bestowed  the  title 
of  count,  he  began  to  subvert  Saxony.  The  extravagance  of  his 
predecessor  was  economy  when  compared  with  his.  His  household 
was  placed  upon  an  immense  footing:  palaces,  churches,  retreats 
(as,  for  instance,  Moritzburg,  the  Saxon  Versailles,  notorious  for 
its  wanton  fetes)  were  erected ;  the  most  costly  chef-d'amvres  were 
purchased  with  tons  of  gold ;  the  "  green  vaults,"  a  collection  of  use- 
less treasures,  was  swelled  with  fresh  valuables  and  curiosities  of 
every  description.    And  for  all  this  his  little  territory  paid.    Not 


I 


DECLINE     OF     IMPERIAL     POWER       307 

1679-1701 

a  murmur  escaped  the  people  until  the  elector,  instead  of  raising 
his  numerous  army  as  v.sual  from  volunteers,  levied  recruits  by 
force,  and  a  revolt  ensued  (1696).  The  rebellion  was  quelled,  and 
the  recruits  were  forced  by  the  infliction  of  torture  to  swear  fealty 
to  the  colors. 

The  ensuing  year  found  the  elector  at  the  summit  of  his  am- 
bition. He  was  elected,  by  means  of  bribing  the  waiwodes  and 
gaining  Russia  and  the  emperor  of  Germany  over  to  his  interests, 
King  of  Poland.  Russia  was  at  that  period  under  the  rule  of 
Peter  the  Great,  who  raised  her  power  to  a  height  destined  at  a 
future  period  to  endanger  Europe.  Sweden  was  at  that  time 
Russia's  most  formidable  opponent,  and  Peter,  with  the  view  of 
paralyzing  the  influence  of  that  monarchy  over  Poland,  favored  the 
elevation  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony.  The  emperor  was  won  over  by 
the  recantation  of  the  new  sovereign.  The  reception  of  the  successor 
of  John  Frederick,  the  sturdy  opponent  to  Catholicism,  into  the 
bosom  of  the  ancient  church  was  indeed  a  triumph.  He  also  gained 
over  the  Jesuits  by  favoring  their  establishment  in  Poland.  The 
elevation  of  the  House  of  Saxony,  on  the  other  hand,  deprived  it 
of  its  station  as  the  head  of  the  Protestant  princes  and  of  all  the 
advantages  it  had  thereby  gained  since  the  Reformation,  and 
Brandenburg  became  henceforward  the  champion  of  Protestantism 
and  the  first  Protestant  power  in  Germany. 

The  frustration  of  the  schemes  of  Louis  XIV.  upon  Poland 
and  the  ignominious  retreat  of  the  Prince  of  Conti,  the  French 
competitor  for  that  throne,  after  the  expulsion  of  his  fleet  under 
Jean  Bart  from  the  harbor  of  Dantzic,  were  the  sole  advantages 
gained  on  this  occasion  by  Germany.  Augustus  was  (1697)  elected 
King  of  Poland.  Still,  notwithstanding  his  knee  being  kissed  in 
token  of  homage  by  the  whole  of  the  Polish  nobility,  and  the  mag- 
nificence of  his  state  (his  royal  robes  alone  cost  a  million  dollars), 
he  was  compelled  to  swear  to  some  extremely  humiliating  terms, 
and  to  refrain  from  bringing  his  consort,  who  steadily  refused  to 
embrace  the  Catholic  faith,  into  the  country.  The  privileges  of  the 
Poles  were  secured;  Saxony  was  taxed  to  meet  the  expenses  in- 
curred by  her  sovereign  and  was  compelled  to  furnish  Poland  with 
money  and  troops. 

The  national  German  diet  from  this  time  on  was  no  longer  at- 
tended by  the  emperor  and  ruling  princes,  but  only  by  their  official 
representatives.    It  was  held  permanently  in  Ratisbon,  and  its  mem- 


808  GERMANY 

1701 

bers  spent  their  time  mostly  in  absurd  quarrels  about  forms.  When 
any  important  question  arose  messengers  were  sent  to  the  rulers  to 
ask  their  advice,  and  so  much  time  was  always  lost  that  the  diet  was 
practically  useless.  The  imperial  court  established  by  Maximilian 
I.  was  now  permanently  located  at  Wetzlar,  not  far  from  Frankfort, 
and  had  become  as  slow  and  superannuated  as  the  diet.  The  em- 
peror, in  fact,  had  so  little  concern  with  the  rest  of  the  empire  that 
his  title  was  only  honorary ;  the  revenues  it  brought  him  were  about 
13,000  florins  annually.  The  only  change  which  took  place  in  the 
political  organization  of  Germany  was  that  in  1692  Ernest  Augustus 
of  Hanover  (the  father  of  George  I.  of  England)  was  raised  to 
the  dignity  of  elector,  which  increased  the  whole  number  of  electors, 
temporal  and  spiritual,  to  nine. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  learning,  liter- 
ature, and  the  arts  received  little  encouragement  in  Germany.  At 
the  petty  courts  there  was  more  French  spoken  than  German,  and 
the  few  authors  of  the  period — with  the  exception  of  Spener, 
Francke,  and  other  devout  religious  writers — produced  scarcely  any 
works  of  value.  The  philosopher  Leibnitz  stands  alone  as  the  one 
distinguished  intellectual  man  of  his  age.  The  upper  classes  were 
too  French  and  too  demoralized  to  assist  in  the  better  development 
of  Germany,  and  the  lower  classes  were  still  too  poor,  oppressed,  and 
spiritless  to  think  of  helping  themselves.  Only  in  a  few  states,  chief 
among  them  Brunswick,  Hesse,  Saxe-Gotha,  and  Saxe-Weimar, 
were  the  courts  on  a  moderate  scale,  the  government  tolerably  hon- 
est, and  the  people  prosperous. 


PART  IV 

RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PRUSSIA.     1701-1806 


Chapter  XXX 

THE  WAR  OF  THE  SPANISH   SUCCESSION.     1701-1714 

THE  beginning  of  the  new  century  brought  with  it  new  trou- 
bles for  all  Europe,  Germany  included.  In  the  north 
Charles  XII.  of  Sweden  and  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia 
were  fighting  for  "  the  balance  of  power."  In  Spain  King  Charles 
II.  was  responsible  for  a  new  cause  of  war,  simply  because  he  was 
the  last  of  the  Hapsburgs  in  a  direct  line,  and  had  no  children! 
Louis  XIV.  had  married  his  elder  sister  and  Leopold  I.  his  younger 
sister,  and  both  claimed  the  right  to  succeed  him.  The  former,  it 
is  true,  had  renounced  all  claim  to  the  throne  of  Spain  when  he 
married,  but  he  put  forth  his  grandson,  Duke  Philip  of  Anjou,  as 
the  candidate.  There  were  two  parties  at  the  court  of  Madrid — 
the  French,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Louis  XIV.'s  ambassador,  and 
the  Austrian,  directed  by  Charles  II.'s  mother  and  wife.  The  other 
nations  of  Europe  were  opposed  to  any  division  of  Spain  between 
the  rival  claimants,  since  the  possession  of  even  half  her  territory 
(which  still  included  Naples,  Sicily,  Milan,  and  Flanders,  besides  her 
enormous  colonies  in  America)  would  have  made  either  France  or 
Austria  too  powerful.  Charles  II.,  however,  was  persuaded  to  make 
a  will  appointing  Philip  of  Anjou  his  successor,  and  when  he  died, 
in  1700,  Louis  XIV.  immediately  sent  his  grandson  over  the  Pyre- 
nees and  had  him  proclaimed  as  King  Philip  V.  of  Spain. 

Leopold  I.  thereupon  declared  war  against  France  in  the  hope 
of  gaining  the  crown  of  Spain  for  his  son,  the  Archduke  Charles. 
England  and  Holland  made  alliances  with  him,  and  he  was  sup- 
ported by  most  of  the  German  states.  The  elector,  Frederick  III. 
of  Brandenburg  (son  of  "the  Great  Elector"),  who  was  a  very 
proud  and  ostentatious  prince,  furnished  his  assistance  on  condition 
that  he  should  be  authorized  by  the  emperor  to  assume  the  title  of 
king.  Since  the  traditional  customs  of  the  German  Empire  did  not 
permit  another  king  than  that  of  Bohemia  among  the  electors, 
Frederick  was  obliged  to  take  the  name  of  his  detached  duchy  of 
Prussia,    instead   of   Brandenburg.    On   January    18,    1701,    he 

Sll 


312  GERMANY 

1701-1703 

crowned  himself  and  his  wife  at  Konigsberg,  and  was  thenceforth 
called  King  Frederick  I.  of  Prussia.  But  his  capital  was  still  Ber- 
lin, and  thus  the  names  of  "  Prussia  "  and  "  the  Prussians  " — which 
came  from  a  small  tribe  of  mixed  Slavonic  blood — were  gradually 
transferred  to  all  his  other  lands  and  their  population,  German,  and 
especially  Saxon,  in  character.  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy  saw  the 
future  with  a  prophetic  glance  when  he  declared :  "  The  emperor,  in 
his  own  interest,  ought  to  have  hanged  the  ministers  who  counseled 
him  to  make  this  concession  to  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg! " 

The  Elector  Max  Emanuel  of  Bavaria  and  his  brother,  the 
Archbishop  of  Cologne,  openly  espoused  the  cause  of  France.  Sev- 
eral smaller  princes  were  also  bribed  by  Louis  XIV.,  but  one  of  them, 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  after  raising  12,000  men  for  France,  was 
compelled  by  the  Elector  of  Hanover  to  add  them  to  the  German 
army.  With  such  miserable  disunion  at  home,  Germany  would 
have  gone  to  pieces  and  ceased  to  exist  but  for  the  powerful  partici- 
pation of  England  and  Holland  in  the  war.  The  English  Parlia- 
ment, it  is  true,  granted  only  10,000  men  at  first,  but  as  soon  as 
Louis  XIV.  recognized  the  exiled  Stuart,  Prince  James,  as  the 
rightful  heir  to  the  throne  of  England,  the  grant  was  enlarged  to 
40,000  soldiers  and  an  equal  number  of  sailors.  The  value  of  this 
aid  was  greatly  increased  by  the  military  genius  of  the  English 
commander,  the  famous  Duke  of  Marlborough. 

The  war  was  commenced  by  Louis  XIV.,  who  suddenly  took 
possession  of  a  number  of  fortified  places  in  Flanders,  which  Max 
Emanuel  of  Bavaria,  then  governor  of  the  province,  had  purposely 
left  unguarded.  While  the  recovery  of  this  territory  was  left  tp 
England  and  Holland,  Prince  Eugene  undertook  to  drive  the  French 
out  of  northern  Italy.  He  made  a  march  across  the  Alps  as  daring 
as  that  of  Napoleon,  transporting  cannon  and  supplies  by  paths  only 
known  to  the  chamois  hunters.  For  nearly  a  year  he  was  entirely 
successful ;  then,  having  been  recalled  to  Vienna,  the  French  were 
reinforced  and  recovered  their  lost  ground.  An  important  result 
of  the  campaign,  however,  was  that  Victor  Amadeus,  Duke  of 
Savoy  (ancestor  of  the  present  King  of  Italy),  quarreled  with  the 
French,  with  whom  he  had  been  allied,  and  joined  the  German  side. 

The  struggle  now  became  more  and  more  confused,  and  we 
cannot  undertake  to  follow  all  its  entangled  episodes.  France  en- 
couraged a  rebellion  in  Hungary;  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  laid 
waste  the  Lower  Rhine ;  Max  Emanuel  seized  Ulm  and  held  it  for 


SPANISH     SUCCESSION  S13 

1703-1706 

France;  Marshal  Villars,  in  1703,  pressed  back  Ludwig  of  Baden 
(who  had  up  to  that  time  been  successful  in  the  Palatinate  and 
Alsatia),  marched  through  the  Black  Forest  and  effected  a  junction 
with  the  Bavarian  army.  His  plan  was  to  cross  the  Alps  and 
descend  into  Italy  in  the  rear  of  the  German  forces  which  Prince 
Eugene  had  left  there ;  but  the  Tyrolese  rose  against  him  and  fought 
with  such  desperation  that  he  was  obliged  to  fall  back  on  Bavaria. 

Marshal  Villars  and  Max  Emanuel  now  commanded  a  com- 
bined army  of  60,000  men  in  the  very  heart  of  Germany.  They 
had  defeated  the  Austrian  commander,  and  Ludwig  of  Baden's 
army  was  too  small  to  take  the  field  against  them.  But  the  Duke 
of  Marlborough  had  been  brilliantly  victorious  in  the  Spanish  Neth- 
erlands and  on  the  Lower  Rhine,  and  he  was  thus  able  to  march  on 
toward  the  Danube.  Prince  Eugene  hastened  from  Hungary  with 
such  troops  as  he  could  collect,  and  the  two,  with  Ludwig  of  Baden, 
were  strong  enough  to  engage  the  French  and  Bavarians.  They 
met  on  August  13,  1704,  on  the  plain  of  the  Danube,  near  the 
little  village  of  Blenheim.  After  a  long  and  furious  battle  the 
French  left  14,000  men  upon  the  field,  lost  13,000  prisoners,  and 
fled  toward  the  Rhine  in  such  haste  that  scarcely  one-third  of  their 
army  reached  the  river.  Marlborough  and  Eugene  were  made 
princes  of  the  German  Empire,  and  all  Europe  rang  with  songs 
celebrating  the  victory,  in  which  Marlborough's  name  appeared  as 
"  Malbrook."  His  proposal  to  follow  up  the  victory  with  an  inva- 
sion of  France  was  rejected  by  the  emperor,  and  the  war,  which 
might  then  have  been  pressed  to  a  termination,  continued  for  ten 
years  longer. 

In  1705  Leopold  I.  relieved  Germany,  by  his  death,  of  the  dead 
weight  of  his  incapacity.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Joseph  I., 
who  possessed,  at  least,  a  little  ordinary  common  sense.  He  mani- 
fested it  at  once  by  making  Prince  Eugene  his  counselor,  instead  of 
surrounding  him  with  spies,  as  his  jealous  and  spiteful  father  had 
done.  Both  sides  were  preparing  for  new  movements,  and  the 
principal  event  of  the  year  took  place  in  Spain,  where  the  archduke, 
who  had  been  conveyed  to  Barcelona  by  an  English  fleet,  obtained 
possession  of  Catalonia  and  Aragon,  and  threatened  Philip  V.  with 
the  loss  of  his  crown.  The  previous  year,  1704,  the  English  had 
taken  Gibraltar. 

In  1706  operations  were  recommenced  on  a  larger  scale,  and 
with  results  which  were  very  disastrous  to  the  plans  of  France. 


314  GERMANY 

1706-1709 

Marlborough's  great  victory  at  Ramillies,  on  May  23,  gave  him 
the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  enabled  the  emperor  to  declare 
Max  Emanuel  and  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  outlawed.  The  city 
of  Turin,  held  by  an  Austrian  garrison,  was  besieged  about  the  same 
time  by  the  Duke  of  Orleans  with  38,000  men.  Then  Prince 
Eugene  hastened  across  the  Alps  with  an  army  of  24,000,  was  rein- 
forced by  13,000  more  under  Victor  Amadeus  of  Savoy,  and  on 
September  7  attacked  the  French  with  such  impetuosity  that  they 
were  literally  destroyed.  Among  the  spoils  were  211  cannon, 
80,000  barrels  of  powder,  and  a  great  amount  of  money,  horses, 
and  provisions.  By  this  victory  Prince  Eugene  also  became  a  hero 
to  the  German  people,  and  many  of  their  songs  about  him  are  sung 
at  this  day.  The  "  Prussian  "  troops,  under  Prince  Leopold  of 
Dessau,  especially  distinguished  themselves.  Their  commander  was 
afterward  one  of  Frederick  the  Great's  most  famous  generals. 

The  first  consequence  of  this  victory  was  an  armistice  with 
Louis  XIV.,  so  far  as  Italian  territory  was  concerned.  Neverthe- 
less, a  part  of  the  Austrian  army  was  sent  to  Naples  in  1707  to  take 
possession  of  the  country  in  the  name  of  Spain.  The  Archduke 
Charles,  after  some  temporary  successes  over  Philip  V.,  was  driven 
back  to  Barcelona,  and  Louis  XIV.  then  offered  to  treat  for  peace. 
Austria  and  England  refused.  In  1708  Marlborough  and  Prince 
Eugene,  again  united,  won  another  victory  over  the  French  at  Oude- 
narde,  and  took  the  stronghold  of  Lille,  which  had  been  considered 
impregnable.  The  road  to  Paris  was  apparently  open  to  the  allies, 
and  Louis  XIV.  offered  to  give  up  his  claim,  on  behalf  of  Philip  V., 
to  Spain,  Milan,  the  Spanish-American  colonies,  and  the  Nether- 
lands, provided  Naples  and  Sicily  were  left  to  his  grandson.  Marl- 
borough and  Prince  Eugene  required,  in  addition,  that  he  should 
expel  Philip  from  Spain,  in  case  Philip  refused  to  conform  to  the 
treaty.  Louis  XIV.'s  pride  was  wounded  by  this  demand,  and  the 
negotiations  were  broken  off. 

With  great  exertion  a  new  French  army  was  raised,  and  Mar- 
shal Villars  placed  in  command.  But  the  two  famous  commanders, 
Marlborough  and  Eugene,  achieved  such  a  new  and  crushing  victory 
in  the  battle  of  Malplaquet,  fought  on  September  11,  1709,  that 
France  made  a  third  attempt  to  conclude  peace.  Louis  XIV. 
now  offered  to  withdraw  his  claim  to  the  Spanish  succession,  to 
restore  Alsatia  and  Strasburg  to  Germany,  and  to  pay  one  million 
livres  a  month  toward  defraying  the  expenses  of  expelling  Philip  V. 


SPANISH     SUCCESSION  815 

1709-1718 

from  Spain.  It  will  scarcely  be  believed  that  this  proposal,  so 
humiliating  to  the  extravagant  pride  of  France,  and  conceding 
more  than  Germany  had  hoped  to  obtain,  was  rejected !  The  cause 
seems  to  have  been  a  change  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Archduke  Charles 
in  Spain.  He  was  again  victorious,  and  in  1710  made  his  triumphal 
entry  into  Madrid.  Yet  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  what  further  ad- 
vantages Joseph  I.  expected  to  secure  by  prolonging  the  war. 

Germany  was  soon  punished  for  this  presumptuous  refusal  of 
peace.  A  court  intrigue  in  England  overthrew  the  Whig  ministry 
and  gave  the  power  into  the  hands  of  the  Tories.  Marlborough 
was  at  first  hampered  and  hindered  in  carrying  out  his  plans,  and 
then  recalled.  While  keeping  up  the  outward  forms  of  her  alliance 
with  Holland  and  Germany,  England  began  to  negotiate  secretly 
with  France,  and  thus  the  chief  strength  of  the  combination  against 
Louis  XIV.  was  broken.  In  171 1  the  Emperor  Joseph  I.  died, 
leaving  no  direct  heirs,  and  the  Archduke  Charles  became  his  suc- 
cessor to  the  throne.  The  latter  immediately  left  Spain,  was  elected 
emperor  and  crowned  that  same  year  as  Charles  VI.  Although  by 
deserting  Spain  he  had  seemed  to  renounce  his  pretension  to  the 
Spanish  crown,  there  was  a  general  fear  that  the  success  of  Germany 
would  unite  the  two  countries,  as  in  the  time  of  Charles  V.,  and  Hol- 
land's interest  in  the  war  began  also  to  languish.  Prince  Eugene, 
even  without  English  aid,  was  so  successful  in  the  early  part  of  1712 
that  Paris  seemed  in  danger;  but  Marshal  Villars,  by  cutting  off 
all  his  supplies,  finally  forced  him  to  retreat. 

During  the  same  year  negotiations  were  carried  on  between 
France,  England,  Holland,  Savoy,  and  Prussia,  They  resulted 
in  1 713  in  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  by  which  the  Bourbon,  Philip  V., 
was  recognized  as  King  of  Spain  and  her  colonies  on  condition  that 
the  crowns  of  Spain  and  France  should  never  be  united.  England 
received  Gibraltar  and  the  Island  of  Minorca  from  Spain,  and 
Acadia,  Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland,  and  the  Hudson's  Bay  Terri- 
tory from  France,  and  the  recognition  of  her  Protestant  monarchy. 
Holland  obtained  the  right  to  garrison  a  number  of  strong  frontier 
fortresses  in  the  Netherlands  near  the  French  territory,  and  Prussia 
received  Neufchatel  in  Switzerland,  some  territory  on  the  Lower 
Rhine,  and  the  acknowledgment  of  Frederick  I.'s  royal  dignity. 

Charles  VI.  refused  to  recognize  his  rival,  Philip  V.,  as  King  of 
Spain,  and  therefore  rejected  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  But  the 
other  princes  of  Germany  were  not  eager  to  prolong  the  war  for  the 


316  GERMANY 

171S-1714 

sake  of  gratifying  the  Hapsburg  pride.  Prince  Eugene,  who  was  a 
devoted  adherent  of  Austria,  in  vain  implored  them  to  be  united 
and  resolute.  "  I  stand,"  he  wrote,  "  like  a  sentinel  (a  watch!)  on 
the  Rhine ;  and  as  mine  eye  wanders  over  these  fair  regions,  I  think 
to  myself  how  happy,  and  beautiful,  and  undisturbed  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  nature's  gifts  they  might  be,  if  they  possessed  courage  to 
use  the  strength  which  God  hath  given  them.  With  an  army  of 
200,000  men  I  would  engage  to  drive  the  French  out  of  Germany, 
and  would  forfeit  my  life  if  I  did  not  obtain  a  peace  which  should 
gladden  our  hearts  for  the  next  twenty  years."  With  such  forces 
as  he  could  collect  he  carried  on  the  war  along  the  Upper  Rhine, 
but  he  lost  the  fortresses  of  Landau  and  Freiburg.  Louis  XIV., 
however,  who  was  now  old  and  infirm,  was  very  tired  of  the  war, 
and  after  these  successes  he  commissioned  Marshal  Villars  to  treat 
for  peace  with  Prince  Eugene.  The  latter  was  authorized  by  the 
emperor  to  negotiate.  The  two  commanders  met  at  Rastatt,  in 
Baden,  and  in  spite  of  the  unreasonable  stubbornness  of  Charles  VL 
a  treaty  was  finally  concluded  on  March  7,  17 14. 

Austria  received  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  Naples,  Milan, 
Mantua,  and  the  Island  of  Sardinia.  Freiburg,  Old  Breisach,  and 
Kehl  were  restored  to  Germany,  but  France  retained  Landau,  on 
the  west  bank  of  the  Rhine,  as  well  as  all  Alsatia  and  Strasburg. 
Thus  the  recovery  of  the  latter  territory,  which  Joseph  I.  refused 
to  accept  in  17 10,  was  lost  to  Germany  until  the  year  1870. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  Duke  Victor  Amadeus  of  Savoy  had 
received  Sicily  as  an  independent  kingdom.  A  few  years  afterward 
he  made  an  exchange  with  Austria,  giving  Sicily  for  Sardinia. 
Thus  originated  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia,  which  continued  to  exist 
until  the  year  i860,  when  Victor  Emmanuel  became  King  of  Italy. 


Chapter    XXXI 

THE    RISE   OF   PRUSSIA.     1714-1740 

WHILE  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  raged  along 
the  Rhine,  in  Bavaria,  and  the  Netherlands,  the  north 
of  Germany  was  convulsed  by  another  and  very  different 
struggle.  The  ambitious  designs  of  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden,  who 
succeeded  to  the  throne  in  1697,  aroused  the  jealousy  and  renewed 
the  old  hostility  of  Denmark,  Russia,  and  Poland,  and  in  1700  they 
formed  an  alliance  against  Sweden.  Denmark  began  the  war  the 
same  year  by  invading  Holstein-Gottorp,  the  duke  of  which  was 
the  brother-in-law  of  Charles  XII.  The  latter  immediately  at- 
tacked Copenhagen,  and  conquered  a  peace.  A  few  months  after- 
ward he  crushed  the  power  of  Peter  the  Great,  in  the  battle  of 
Narva,  and  was  then  free  to  march  against  Poland.  Augustus  the 
Strong  was  no  match  for  the  young  northern  hero,  who  compelled 
the  Polish  nobles  to  depose  him  and  elect  Stanislas  Lesczinsky  in 
his  stead.  Charles  XII.  then  marched  through  Silesia  into  Saxony, 
in  the  year  1706,  and  from  his  camp  near  Leipzig  dictated  his  own 
terms  to  Augustus. 

A  year  later,  having  exhausted  what  resources  were  left  to  the 
people  after  the  outrageous  exactions  of  their  own  electors,  Charles 
XII.  evacuated  Saxony  with  an  army  of  40,000  men,  many  of  them 
German  recruits,  and  marched  through  Poland  toward  Moscow, 
which  he  hoped  to  capture  and  so  compel  the  Emperor  of  Russia  to  a 
humiliating  peace.  But  as  he  advanced  into  the  depths  of  Russia 
his  troops  began  to  drop  away,  from  starvation  and  exhaustion. 
Peter  the  Great  had  meanwhile  been  gathering  his  forces  and  at 
last  annihilated  the  Swedish  force  at  the  fatal  battle  of  Pultowa. 
Charles  XII.  and  a  few  companions  barely  escaped  capture  and 
fled  to  Turkey.  Peter  the  Great  then  took  possession  of  the  Baltic 
provinces,  and  prepared  to  found  his  new  capital  of  St.  Petersburg 
on  the  Neva.  Denmark  and  Saxony  also  entered  into  an  alliance 
with  Russia,  Augustus  the  Strong  was  again  placed  on  the  throne 
of  Poland,  and  the  Swedish-German  provinces  on  the  Baltic  and 

317 


S18 


GERMANY 


1714-1720 

the  North  Sea  were  overrun  and  ravaged  by  the  Danish  and  Rus- 
sian armies.  Toward  the  end  of  the  year  17 14,  after  peace  had 
been  concluded  with  France,  Charles  XII.  suddenly  appeared  in 
Stralsund,  having  escaped  from  his  long  exile  in  Turkey  and  trav- 
eled day  and  night  on  horseback  across  Europe,  from  the  shores 
of  the  Black  Sea.  Then  Prussia  and  Hanover,  both  eager  to  en- 
large their  dominions  at  the  expense  of  Sweden,  united  against 
him.  He  had  not  sufficient  military  strength  to  resist  them,  and 
after  his  death  at  Frederickshall,  in  17 18,  Sweden  was  compelled 


NORTHEASTERN  EUROPr 

1700 


to  make  peace  on  conditions  which  forever  destroyed  her  supremacy 
among  the  northern  powers. 

By  the  Treaties  of  Stockholm,  made  in  17 19  and  1720,  Prussia 
acquired  Stettin  and  all  of  Pomerania  except  a  strip  of  the  coast 
with  Wismar,  Stralsund,  and  the  Island  of  Riigen,  paying  two 
million  thalers  to  Sweden.  Hanover  acquired  the  territories  of 
Bremen  and  Verden,  paying  one  million  thalers.  Denmark  re- 
ceived Schleswig,  and  Russia  all  of  her  conquests  except  Finland. 
The  power  of  Poland,  already  weakened  by  the  corruptions  and 


RISE     OF     PRUSSIA  319 

1714-1718 

dissensions  of  her  nobles,  steadily  declined  after  this  long  and 
exhausting  war. 

The  collective  history  of  the  German  states — for  we  can  hardly 
say  history  of  "  Germany,"  when  there  really  was  no  Germany — 
at  this  time  is  a  continuous  succession  of  wars  and  diplomatic  in- 
trigues, which  break  out  in  one  direction  before  they  are  settled  in 
another.  In  1713  Frederick  I.  of  Prussia  died,  and  was  succeeded 
by  his  son,  Frederick  William  I.  In  17 14  George  I.,  Elector  of 
Hanover,  was  made  King  of  England,  and  about  the  same  time  the 
Emperor  Charles  VI.  issued  a  decree,  called  the  "  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion," establishing  the  order  of  succession  to  the  throne  for  his 
dynasty.  He  was  led  to  this  step  by  the  example  of  Spain,  where 
the  failure  of  the  direct  line  had  given  rise  to  thirteen  years  of 
European  war,  and  by  the  circumstance  that  he  himself  had  neither 
sons  nor  brothers.  A  daughter,  Maria  Theresa,  was  born  in  171 7, 
and  thus  the  provision  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  that  the  crown 
should  descend  to  female  heirs  in  the  absence  of  male,  preserved 
the  succession  in  his  own  family,  and  forestalled  the  claim  of  the 
Elector  of  Bavaria  and  other  princes  who  were  more  or  less  dis- 
tantly related  to  the  Hapsburgs. 

The  Pragmatic  Sanction  was  accepted  in  Austria  without  diffi- 
culty, as  there  was  no  power  to  dispute  the  emperor's  will,  but  it 
was  not  recognized  by  the  other  states  of  Germany  and  other  na- 
tions of  Europe  until  after  twenty  years  of  diplomatic  negotiations 
and  serious  sacrifices  on  the  part  of  Austria.  Prussia  received  more 
territory  on  the  Lower  Rhine,  the  duchies  of  Parma  and  Piacenza 
in  Italy  were  given  to  Spain,  and  the  claims  of  Augustus  III.  of 
Saxony  and  Poland  were  so  strenuously  supported  that  in  1733 
the  so-called  "  War  of  the  Polish  Succession  "  broke  out.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  two  other  wars  had  occurred,  and,  although 
both  of  them  affected  Austria  rather  than  the  German  Empire,  they 
must  be  briefly  described. 

In  1 7 14  the  Emperor  Charles  VI.  formed  an  alliance  with  the 
Venetians  against  the  Turks,  who  had  taken  the  Morea  from 
Venice.  The  command  was  given  to  Prince  Eugene,  who  marched 
against  his  old  enemy,  determined  to  win  back  what  remaining 
Hungarian  or  Slavonic  territory  was  still  held  by  Turkey.  The 
Grand  Vizier  Ali  opposed  him  with  a  powerful  force,  and  after 
various  minor  engagements  a  great  battle  was  fought  at  Peterwar- 
dein,  in  August,  1716.     Eugene  was  completely  victorious.     The 


320  GERMANY 

1718 

Turics  were  driven  beyond  the  Save  and  sheltered  themselves  be- 
hind the  strong  walls  of  Belgrade.  Eugene  followed,  and,  after  a 
siege  which  is  famous  in  military  annals,  took  Belgrade  by  storm. 
The  victory  is  celebrated  in  a  song  which  the  German  people  are 
still  in  the  habit  of  singing.  The  war  ended  with  the  Treaty  of 
Passarowitz,  in  1718,  by  which  Turkey  was  compelled  to  surrender 
to  Austria  the  Banat  of  Temesvar,  Servia,  including  Belgrade,  and 
a  part  of  Wallachia,  Bosnia,  and  Croatia. 

Before  this  treaty  was  concluded  a  new  war  had  broken  out  in 
Italy.  Philip  V.  of  Spain,  incensed  at  not  being  recognized  by 
Charles  VI.,  took  possession  of  Sardinia  and  Sicily,  with  the  inten- 
tion of  conquering  Naples  from  Austria.  England,  France,  Hol- 
land, and  Austria  then  formed  the  "  Quadruple  Alliance,"  as  it 
was  called,  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and 
Spain  was  compelled  to  yield. 

The  power  of  Prussia,  during  these  years,  was  steadily  increas- 
ing. Frederick  I.,  it  is  true,  was  among  the  imitators  of  Louis 
XIV. :  he  built  stately  palaces,  and  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  on 
showy  court  festivals,  but  he  did  not  completely  exhaust  the  re- 
sources of  the  country,  like  the  electors  of  Saxony  and  the  rulers 
of  many  smaller  states.  On  the  other  hand,  he  founded  the  Uni- 
versity of  Halle  in  1694,  and  commissioned  the  philosopher  Leib- 
nitz to  draw  up  a  plan  for  an  Academy  of  Science,  which  was  estab- 
lished in  Berlin,  in  171 1.  He  was  a  zealous  Protestant,  and  gave 
welcome  to  all  who  were  exiled  from  other  states  on  account 
of  their  faith.  As  a  ruler,  however,  he  was  equally  careless  and 
despotic,  and  his  government  was  often  intrusted  to  the  hands  of 
unworthy  agents.  Frederick  the  Great  said  of  him :  "  He  was 
great  in  small  matters,  and  small  in  great  matters." 

His  son,  Frederick  William  I.,  was  a  man  of  an  entirely  differ- 
ent nature.  He  disliked  show  and  ceremony.  He  hated  every- 
thing French  with  a  heartiness  which  was  often  unreasonable,  but 
which  was  honestly  provoked  by  the  enormous,  monkey-like  affecta- 
tion of  the  manners  of  Versailles  by  some  of  his  fellow-rulers. 
While  Augustus  of  Saxony  spent  six  millions  of  thalers  on  a  single 
entertainment,  he  set  to  work  to  reduce  the  expenses  of  his  royal 
household.  While  the  court  of  Austria  supported  forty  thousand 
officials  and  hangers-on,  and  half  of  Vienna  was  fed  from  the 
imperial  kitchen,  he  was  employed  in  examining  the  smallest  de- 
tails of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  of  his  state  in  order  to  econ- 


RISE     OF     PRUSSIA  S21 

1718-1740 

omize  and  save.  He  was  miserly,  fierce,  coarse,  and  brutal;  he 
aimed  at  being  a  German,  but  he  went  back  almost  to  the  days  of 
Wittekind  for  his  ideas  of  German  culture  and  character;  he  was 
a  tyrant  of  the  most  savage  kind, — but,  after  all  has  been  said 
against  him,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  without  his  hard  prac- 
tical sense  in  matters  of  government,  his  rigid,  despotic  organiza- 
tion of  industry,  finance,  and  the  army,  Frederick  the  Great  would 
never  have  possessed  the  means  to  maintain  himself  in  that  struggle 
which  made  Prussia  a  great  power. 

Some  illustrations  of  his  policy  as  a  ruler  and  his  personal 
habits  must  be  given  in  order  to  show  both  sides  of  his  character. 
He  had  the  most  unbounded  idea  of  the  rights  and  duties  of  a  king, 
and  the  aim  of  his  life,  therefore,  was  to  increase  his  own  authority 
by  increasing  the  wealth,  the  order,  and  the  strength  of  Prussia. 
He  was  no  friend  of  science,  except  when  it  could  be  shown  to  have 
some  practical  use,  but  he  favored  education,  and  one  of  his  first 
measures  was  to  establish  four  hundred  schools  among  the  people 
by  the  money  which  he  saved  from  the  expenditures  of  the  royal 
household.  His  personal  economy  was  so  severe  that  the  queen 
was  only  allowed  to  have  one  waiting  woman.  At  this  time  the 
empress  of  Germany  had  several  hundred  attendants,  received  two 
hogsheads  of  Tokay  daily  for  her  parrots,  and  twelve  barrels  of 
wine  for  her  baths!  Frederick  William  I.  protected  the  industry 
of  Prussia  by  imposing  heavy  duties  upon  all  foreign  products ;  he 
even  went  so  far  as  to  prohibit  the  people  from  wearing  any  but 
Prussian-made  cloth,  setting  them  the  example  himself.  He  also 
devoted  much  attention  to  agriculture,  and  when  17,000  Reformers 
were  driven  out  of  Upper  Austria  by  the  Archbishop  of  Salzburg, 
after  an  inhuman  persecution,  he  not  only  furnished  them  with  land, 
but  supported  them  until  they  were  settled  in  their  new  homes. 

The  organization  of  the  Prussian  army  was  intrusted  to  Prince 
Leopold  of  Dessau,  who  had  distinguished  himself  at  Turin  under 
Prince  Eugene.  Although  during  the  greater  part  of  Frederick 
William's  reign  peace  was  preserved,  the  military  force  was  steadily 
increased  until  it  amounted  to  84,000  men.  The  king  had  a  singu- 
lar mania  for  giant  soldiers.  Miserly  as  he  was  in  other  respects, 
he  was  ready  to  go  to  any  expense  to  procure  recruits  seven  feet 
high  for  his  bodyguard.  He  not  only  purchased  such,  but  allowed 
his  agents  to  kidnap  them,  and  despotically  sent  a  number  of  Ger- 
man mechanics  to  Peter  the  Great  in  exchange  for  an  equal  number 


322  GERMANY 

1718-1740 

of  Russian  grants.  For  forty-three  such  tall  soldiers  he  paid 
$43,000,  one  of  them,  who  was  unusually  large,  costing  $9,000. 
The  expense  of  keeping  these  guardsmen  was  proportionately  great, 
and  much  6f  the  king's  time  was  spent  in  inspecting  them.  Some- 
times he  tried  to  paint  their  portraits,  and  if  the  likeness  was  not 
successful,  an  artist  was  employed  to  paint  the  man's  face  until  it 
resembled  the  king's  picture ! 

Frederick  William's  regular  evening  recreation  was  his  "  To- 
bacco Parliament,"  as  he  called  it.  Some  of  his  ministers  and 
generals,  foreign  ambassadors,  and  even  ordinary  citizens,  were 
invited  to  smoke  and  drink  beer  with  him  in  a  plain  room,  where 
he  sat  upon  a  three-legged  stool,  and  they  upon  wooden  benches. 
Each  was  obliged  to  smoke,  or  at  least  to  have  a  clay  pipe  in  his 
mouth  and  appear  to  smoke.  The  most  important  affairs  of  state 
were  discussed  at  these  meetings,  which  were  conducted  with  so 
little  formality  that  no  one  was  allowed  to  rise  when  the  king 
entered  the  room.  He  was  not  so  amiable  upon  his  walks  through 
the  streets  of  Berlin  or  Potsdam.  He  always  carried  a  heavy 
cane,  which  he  would  apply  without  mercy  to  the  shoulders  of  any 
who  seemed  to  be  idle,  no  matter  what  his  rank  or  station.  Even 
his  own  household  was  not  exempt  from  blows;  and  his  son  Fred- 
erick was  scarcely  treated  better  than  any  of  his  soldiers  or 
workmen. 

This  manner  of  government  was  rude,  but  it  was  also  sys- 
tematic and  vigorous,  and  the  people  upon  whom  it  was  exercised 
did  not  deteriorate  in  character,  as  was  the  case  in  almost  all  other 
parts  of  Germany.  Austria,  in  spite  of  the  pomp  of  the  emperor's 
court,  was  in  a  state  of  moral  and  intellectual  decline.  Charles  VI. 
was  a  man  of  little  capacity,  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  the  people  whom  he  ruled  gradually  sank  deeper  in 
stupidity  and  ignorance.  The  strength  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg 
was  gradually  transferred  to  the  Bohemian,  Hungarian,  and  Sla- 
vonic races  which  occupied  the  greater  part  of  its  territory.  The 
industry  of  the  country  was  left  without  encouragement ;  what  little 
education  was  permitted  was  in  the  hands  of  the  priests,  and  all 
real  progress  came  to  an  end.  But  for  this  very  reason  Austria 
became  the  ideal  of  the  German  nobility,  nine-tenths  of  whom  were 
feudalists  and  sighed  for  the  return  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Hundreds 
of  them  took  service  under  the  emperor,  either  at  court  or  in  the 
anny,  and  helped  to  preserve  the  external  forms  of  his  power. 


RISE     OF     PRUSSIA  Sft» 

1718-1740 

In  most  of  the  other  German  states  the  condition  of  affairs 
was  not  much  better.  Bavaria,  the  Palatinate,  and  the  three  arch- 
bishops of  Mayence,  Treves,  and  Cologne  were  abject  instruments 
in  the  hands  of  France.  Hanover  was  governed  by  the  interests 
of  England,  and  Saxony  by  those  of  Poland.  After  George  I. 
went  to  England  the  government  of  Hanover  was  exercised  by  a 
council  of  nobles,  who  kept  up  the  court  ceremonials  just  as  if  the 
elector  were  present.  His  portrait  was  placed  in  a  chair,  and  they 
observed  the  same  etiquette  toward  it  as  if  his  real  self  were  there! 
In  Wiirtemberg  the  duke,  Eberhard  Ludwig,  so  oppressed  the  peo- 
ple that  many  of  them  emigrated  to  America  between  the  years 
1 71 7  and  1720,  and  settled  in  Pennsylvania.  This  was  the  first 
considerable  German  emigration  to  the  New  World. 

In  1733  Germany — or  rather  the  Emperor  Charles  VI. — be- 
came again  involved  in  war.  The  Pragmatic  Sanction  was  at  the  bot- 
tom of  it.  The  endless  diplomacy  of  Charles  to  insure  the  recogni- 
tion of  this  decree  led  him  into  an  alliance  with  Russia  to  place  Au- 
gustus III.  of  Saxony  on  the  throne  of  Poland.  Louis  XV.  of 
France,  who  had  married  the  daughter  of  the  Polish  king,  Stanislas 
Lesczinsky,  took  the  latter's  part.  Prussia  was  induced  to  join  Aus- 
tria and  Russia,  but  the  cautious  and  economical  Frederick  William 
I.  withdrew  from  the  alliance  as  soon  as  he  found  that  the  expense 
to  him  would  be  more  than  the  advantage.  The  Polish  diet  was 
divided.  The  majority,  influenced  by  France,  elected  Stanislas, 
who  reached  Warsaw  in  the  disguise  of  a  merchant  and  was 
crowned  in  September,  1733.  The  minority  declared  for  Augustus 
III.,  in  whose  aid  a  Russian  army  was  even  then  entering  Poland. 

France,  in  alliance  with  Spain  and  Sardinia,  had  already  de- 
clared war  against  Germany.  The  plan  of  operations  had  evidently 
been  prepared  in  advance,  and  was  everywhere  successful.  One 
French  army  occupied  Lorraine,  another  crossed  the  Rhine  and 
captured  Kehl  (opposite  Strasburg),  and  a  third,  under  Marshal 
Villars,  entered  Lombardy.  Naples  and  Sicily,  powerless  to  resist, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Spain.  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy,  now  more 
than  seventy  years  of  age,  was  sent  to  the  Rhine  with  such  troops 
as  Austria,  taken  by  surprise,  was  able  to  furnish.  The  other 
German  states  either  sympathized  with  France  or  were  indifferent 
to  a  quarrel  which  really  did  not  concern  them.  Frederick  William 
of  Prussia  finally  sent  10,000  well-disciplined  soldiers;  but  even 
with  this  aid  Prince  Eugene  was  unable  to  expel   the  French  from 


324  GERMANY 

1734-1740 

Lorraine.  In  Poland,  however,  the  plans  of  France  utterly  failed. 
In  June,  1734,  King  Stanislas  fled  in  the  disguise  of  a  cattle  dealer. 
The  following  year  10,000  Russians  appeared  on  the  Rhine,  as 
allies  of  Austria,  and  Louis  XV.  found  it  prudent  to  negotiate  for 
peace. 

The  Treaty  of  Vienna,  concluded  in  October,  1735,  put  an 
end  to  the  War  of  the  Polish  Succession.  Francis  of  Lorraine, 
who  was  betrothed  to  Charles  VI.'s  daughter,  Maria  Theresa,  was 
made  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  and  Lorraine  (now  only  a  portion 
of  the  original  territory,  with  Nancy  as  capital)  was  given  to  the 
ex-King  Stanislas  of  Poland,  with  the  condition  that  it  should 
revert  to  France  at  his  death.  Spain  received  Naples  and  Sicily; 
Tortona  and  Novara  were  added  to  Sardinia,  and  Austria  was  in- 
duced to  consent  to  all  these  losses  by  the  recognition  of  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction  and  the  annexation  of  the  duchies  of  Parma  and 
Piacenza.  Prussia  got  nothing;  and  Frederick  William  I.,  who 
had  been  expecting  to  add  Jiilich  and  Berg  to  his  possessions  on 
the  Lower  Rhine,  was  so  exasperated  that  he  entered  into  secret 
arrangements  with  France  in  order  to  carry  out  his  end.  The 
enmity  of  Austria  and  Prussia  was  now  confirmed,  and  was  destined 
to  be  the  chief  force  in  German  politics  until  the  Franco-Prussian 
War  of  1870  settled  the  rivalry  in  favor  of  Prussia. 

In  1736  Francis  of  Lorraine  and  Maria  Theresa  were  married, 
and  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy  died,  worn  out  with  the  hardships  of 
his  long  and  victorious  career.  The  next  year  the  Empress  Anna 
of  Russia  persuaded  Charles  VI.  to  unite  with  her  in  a  war  against 
Turkey,  her  object  being  to  get  possession  of  Azov.  By  this  unfor- 
tunate alliance  Austria  lost  all  which  she  had  gained  by  the  Treaty 
of  Passorowitz  twenty  years  before.  There  was  no  commander 
like  Prince  Eugene,  her  military  strength  had  been  weakened  by 
useless  and  unsuccessful  wars,  and  she  was  compelled  to  make  peace 
in  1739  by  yielding  Belgrade  and  all  her  conquests  in  Servia  and 
Wallachia  to  Turkey. 

On  May  31,  1740,  Frederick  William  I.  died,  fifty-two  years 
of  age.  He  left  behind  him  a  state  containing  more  that  50,000 
square  miles,  and  about  2,500,000  of  inhabitants.  The  revenues 
of  Prussia,  which  were  two  and  a  half  millions  of  thalers  on 
his  accession  to  the  throne,  had  increased  to  seven  and  a  half  mil- 
lions annually,  and  there  were  nine  millions  in  the  treasury.  Berlin 
had   a  population  of  nearly    100,000,   and   Stettin,   Magdeburg, 


RISE     OF     PRUSSIA  8«5 

1740 

IMemel,  and  other  cities  had  been  strongly  fortified.  An  army  of 
more  than  80,000  men  was  perfectly  organized  and  disciplined. 
There  was  a  beginning  of  a  system  of  instruction  for  the  people, 
feudalism  was  almost  entirely  suppressed,  and  the  charge  of  witch- 
craft (which  since  the  fifteenth  century  had  caused  the  execution 
of  several  hundred  thousand  victims  throughout  Germany)  was 
expunged  from  the  pages  of  the  law.  Although  the  land  was 
almost  wholly  Protestant,  there  was  entire  religious  freedom,  and 
the  Catholic  subjects  could  complain  of  no  violation  of  their  rights. 

On  October  24,  1740,  Charles  VI.  died,  leaving  a  dimin- 
ished realm,  a  disordered  military  organization,  and  a  people  so 
demoralized  by  the  combined  luxury  and  oppression  of  the  govern- 
ment that  for  more  than  a  century  afterward  all  hope  and  energy 
and  aspiration  seemed  to  be  crushed  among  them.  The  outward 
show  and  trappings  of  the  empire  remained  with  Austria,  and  kept 
alive  the  political  superstitions  of  that  large  class  of  Germans  who 
looked  backward  instead  of  forward;  but  the  rude,  half -developed 
strength  which  cuts  loose  from  the  past  and  busies  itself  with  the 
practical  work  of  its  day  and  generation  was  rapidly  creating  a 
future  for  Prussia. 

Frederick  William  I.  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Frederick  II., 
called  Frederick  the  Great.  Charles  VI.  was  succeeded  by  his  daugh- 
ter, the  Empress  Maria  Theresa.  The  former  was  twenty-eight, 
the  latter  twenty-three,  years  old. 


Chapter  XXXII 

THE   REIGN   OF   FREDERICK  THE   GREAT.     1740-1786 

FEW  royal  princes  ever  had  a  more  unfortunate  childhood 
and  youth  than  Frederick  the  Great.  His  mother,  Sophia 
Dorothea  of  Hanover,  a  sister  of  George  II.  of  England, 
was  an  amiable,  mild-tempered  woman,  who  was  devotedly  attached 
to  him,  but  had  no  power  to  protect  him  from  the  violence  of  his 
hard  and  tyrannical  father.  As  a  boy  his  chief  tastes  were  music 
and  French  literature,  which  he  could  only  indulge  by  stealth.  The 
king  not  only  called  him  "  idiot !  "  and  "  puppy ! "  when  he  found 
him  occupied  with  a  flute  or  a  French  book,  but  threatened  him 
with  personal  chastisement.  His  education  was  chiefly  received 
from  a  French  tutor,  and  his  taste  was  formed  in  the  school  of 
ideas  which  at  that  time  ruled  in  France,  and  which  was  largely 
formed  by  Voltaire,  whom  Frederick  during  his  boyhood  greatly 
admired,  and  afterward  made  one  of  his  chief  correspondents  and 
intimates.  The  influence  of  this  is  most  clearly  to  be  traced 
throughout  his  life. 

His  music  became  almost  a  passion  with  him,  though  it  is 
doubtful  whether  any  of  the  praises  of  his  proficiency  that  have 
come  down  to  us  are  more  than  the  remains  of  the  flatteries  of  the 
time.  His  compositions  which  were  performed  at  his  concerts, 
to  which  leading  musicians  were  often  invited,  do  not  give  any 
evidence  of  the  genius  claimed  for  him  in  this  respect;  but  it  is 
certain  that  he  attained  a  considerable  degree  of  mechanical  skill 
in  playing  the  flute.  In  after  life  his  musical  taste  continued  to 
influence  him  greatly,  and  the  establishment  of  the  opera  at  Berlin 
was  chiefly  due  to  him. 

In  1728,  when  only  sixteen  years  old,  he  accompanied  his  father 
on  a  visit  to  the  court  of  Augustus  the  Strong,  at  Dresden,  and  was 
for  a  time  led  astray  by  the  corrupt  society  into  which  he  was  there 
thrown.  The  wish  of  his  mother,  that  he  should  marry  the  Prin- 
cess Amelia,  the  daughter  of  George  II.,  was  thwarted  by  his 
father's  dislike  of  England.     Gradually  the  tyranny  to  which  he 

SS6 


FREDERICK    THE     GREAT  827 

1740 

was  subjected  by  his  father  became  intolerable,  and  in  1730,  while 
accompanying  his  father  on  a  journey  to  southern  Germany,  he 
determined  to  run  away. 

His  accomplice  was  a  young  officer.  Lieutenant  von  Katte, 
who  had  been  his  bosom  friend  for  two  or  three  years.  A  letter 
written  by  Frederick  to  the  latter  fell  by  accident  into  the  hands  of 
another  officer  of  the  same  name,  who  sent  it  to  the  king,  and  the 
plot  was  thus  discovered  just  before  it  was  to  have  been  put  into 
execution.  The  king's  rage  when  he  heard  that  his  own  son  had 
joined  with  certain  officers  to  desert  from  the  army  knew  no 
bounds.  In  his  opinion  military  desertion  was  the  worst  crime  a 
man  could  commit.  Katte  was  arrested  before  he  could  escape, 
tried  by  court-martial,  and  sentenced  to  several  years'  imprisonment, 
Frederick  William  annulled  the  sentence  and  ordered  him  to  be 
immediately  executed.  To  make  the  deed  more  barbarous,  it  was 
done  before  the  window  of  the  cell  in  which  Frederick  was  con- 
fined. 

Frederick  himself  in  prison  was  carefully  watched,  allowed  no 
implements  except  a  wooden  spoon,  lest  he  might  commit  suicide. 
A  Bible  and  hymn-book  were  the  only  books  permitted  to  him. 
The  officer  who  had  him  in  charge  could  only  converse  with  him 
by  means  of  a  hole  bored  through  the  ceiling  of  his  cell.  The  king 
insisted  that  he  should  be  formally  tried;  but  the  court-martial, 
while  deciding  that  "  Colonel  Fritz  "  was  guilty,  as  an  officer, 
asserted  that  it  had  no  authority  to  condemn  the  crown  prince. 
The  king  overruled  the  decision,  and  ordered  his  son  to  be  exe- 
cuted. This  course  excited  such  horror  and  indignation  among 
the  officers  that  Frederick  was  pardoned,  but  not  released  from 
imprisonment  until  his  spirit  was  broken  and  he  had  promised  to 
obey  his  father  in  all  things.  For  a  year  he  was  obliged  to  work 
as  a  clerk  in  the  departments  of  the  government,  beginning  with 
the  lowest  position  and  rising  as  he  acquired  practical  knowledge. 
He  did  not  appear  at  court  until  November,  1731,  when  his  sister 
Wilhelmine  was  married  to  the  Margrave  of  Bayreuth.  The  cere- 
mony had  already  commenced  when  Frederick,  dressed  in  a  plain 
suit  of  gray,  without  any  order  or  decorations,  was  discovered 
among  the  servants.  The  king  pulled  him  forth  and  presented  him 
to  the  queen  with  these  words :  "  Here,  Madam,  our  Fritz  is  back 
again ! " 

In  1732  Frederick  was  forced  to  marry  the  Princess  Elizabeth 


328  GERMANY 

1740 

of  Brunswick-Bevern,  whom  he  disHked,  and  with  whom  he  lived 
but  a  short  time.  His  father  gave  him  the  castle  of  Rheinsberg, 
near  Potsdam,  and  there,  for  the  first  time,  he  enjoyed  some  inde- 
pendence. His  leisure  was  devoted  to  philosophical  studies,  and 
to  correspondence  with  Voltaire  and  other  distinguished  French 
authors.  During  the  War  of  the  Polish  Succession  he  served  for 
a  short  time  under  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy,  but  had  no  opportunity 
to  test  or  develop  his  military  talent.  Until  his  father's  death  he 
seemed  to  be  more  of  a  poet  and  philosopher  than  anything  else. 
Only  the  few  who  knew  him  intimately  perceived  that  his  mind 
was  occupied  with  plans  of  government  and  conquest. 

When  Frederick  William  I.  died  the  people  rejoiced  in  the 
prospect  of  a  just  and  peaceful  rule.  Frederick  H.  declared  to  his 
ministers,  on  receiving  their  oath  of  allegiance,  that  no  distinction 
should  be  allowed  between  the  interests  of  the  country  and  the 
king,  since  they  were  identical ;  but  if  any  conflict  of  the  two  should 
arise,  the  interests  of  the  country  must  have  the  preference.  Then 
he  at  once  corrected  the  abuses  of  the  game  and  recruiting  laws,  dis- 
banded his  father's  bodyguard  of  giants,  abolished  torture  in  crim- 
inal cases,  reformed  the  laws  of  marriage,  and  established  a  special 
ministry  for  commerce  and  manufactures.  When  he  set  out  for 
Konigsberg  to  receive  the  allegiance  of  Prussia  proper,  his  whole 
court  traveled  in  three  carriages.  On  arriving,  he  dispensed  with 
the  ceremony  of  coronation,  as  being  unnecessary,  and  then  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  a  much  closer  political  union  between  Prus- 
sia and  Brandenburg,  which,  in  many  respects,  had  been  independent 
of  each  other  up  to  that  time. 

The  death  of  the  Emperor  Charles  VI.  was  the  signal  for  a  gen- 
eral disturbance.  Maria  Theresa,  as  the  events  of  her  reign  after- 
ward proved,  was  a  woman  of  strong,  even  heroic,  character; 
stately,  handsome,  and  winning  in  her  personal  appearance,  and 
morally  irreproachable.  No  Hapsburg  emperor  before  her  inher- 
ited the  crown  under  such  discouraging  circumstances,  and  none 
could  have  maintained  himself  more  bravely  and  firmly  than  she  did. 
The  ministers  of  Charles  VI.  flattered  themselves  that  they  would 
now  have  unlimited  sway  over  the  empire,  but  they  were  mistaken. 
Maria  Theresa  listened  to  their  counsels,  but  decided  for  herself. 
Even  her  husband,  Francis  of  Lorraine  and  Tuscany,  was  unable 
to  influence  her  judgment.  The  Elector  Charles  Albert  of  Bavaria, 
whose,  grandmother  was  a  Hapsburg,  claimed  the  crown,  and  was 


FREDERICK     THE     GREAT  329 

1740-1741 

supported  by  Louis  XV.  of  France,  who  saw  another  opportunity 
of  weakening  Germany.  The  reigning  archbishops  on  the  Rhine 
were  of  course  on  the  side  of  France.  Poland  and  Saxony,  united 
under  Augustus  III.,  at  the  same  time  laid  claim  to  some  territory 
along  the  northern  frontier  of  Austria. 

Frederick  II.  saw  his  opportunity,  and  was  first  in  the  field. 
His  pretext  was  the  right  of  Brandenburg  to  four  principalities  in 
Silesia,  which  had  been  relinquished  to  Austria  under  the  pressure 
of  circumstances.  The  real  reason  was,  as  he  afterward  confessed, 
his  determination  to  strengthen  Prussia  by  the  acquisition  of  more 
territory.  The  kingdom  was  divided  into  so  many  portions,  sep- 
arated so  widely  from  each  other,  that  it  could  not  become  powerful 
and  permanent  unless  they  were  united.  He  had  secretly  raised 
his  military  force  to  100,000  men,  and  in  December,  1740,  he 
marched  into  Silesia,  almost  before  Austria  suspected  his  purpose. 
His  army  was  kept  under  strict  discipline;  the  people  were  neither 
plundered  nor  restricted  in  their  religious  worship,  and  the  capital, 
Breslau,  soon  opened  its  gates.  Several  fortresses  were  taken  dur- 
ing the  winter,  and  in  April,  1741,  a  decisive  battle  was  fought  at 
Mollwitz.  The  Austrian  army  had  the  advantage  of  numbers  and 
its  victory  seemed  so  certain  that  Marshal  Schwerin  persuaded 
Frederick  to  leave  the  field ;  then,  gathering  together  the  remainder 
of  his  troops,  he  made  a  last  and  desperate  charge  which  turned 
defeat  into  victory.  All  lower  Silesia  was  now  in  the  hands  of  the 
Prussians. 

France,  Spain,  Bavaria,  and  Saxony  immediately  united 
against  Austria.  A  French  army  crossed  the  Rhine,  joined  the 
Bavarian  forces,  and  marched  to  Linz,  on  the  Danube,  where  Charles 
Albert  was  proclaimed  Archduke  of  Austria.  Maria  Theresa  and 
her  court  fled  to  Presburg,  where  the  Hungarian  nobles  were  already 
convened,  in  the  hope  of  recovering  the  rights  they  had  lost  under 
Leopold  I.  She  was  forced  to  grant  most  of  their  demands, 
after  which  she  was  crowned  with  the  crown  of  St.  Stephen,  gal- 
loped up  "  the  king's  hill,"  and  waved  her  sword  toward  the  four 
quarters  of  the  earth,  with  so  much  grace  and  spirit  that  the  Hun- 
garians were  quite  won  to  her  side.  Afterward,  when  she  appeared 
before  the  diet  in  their  national  costume,  with  her  son  Joseph  in 
her  arms,  and  made  an  eloquent  speech,  setting  forth  the  dangers 
which  beset  her,  the  nobles  drew  their  sabers  and  shouted :  "  We 
will  die  for  our  queen,  Maria  Theresa !  " 


S30  GERMANY 

1741-1745 

While  the  support  of  Hungary  and  Austria  was  thus  secured, 
the  combined  German  and  French  force  did  not  advance  upon 
Vienna,  but  marched  to  Prague,  where  Charles  Albert  was  crowned 
King  of  Bohemia.  This  act  was  followed,  in  February,  1742,  by 
his  coronation  in  Frankfort  as  emperor,  under  the  name  of  Charles 
VII.  Before  this  took  place  Austria  had  been  forced  to  make  a 
secret  treaty  with  Frederick  II.  The  latter,  however,  declared  that 
the  conditions  of  it  had  been  violated,  and  in  the  spring  of  1742 
suddenly  renewed  the  war  with  Austria  and  marched  into  Bohemia. 
He  was  victorious  in  the  first  great  battle.  England  then  inter- 
vened, and  persuaded  Maria  Theresa  to  make  peace  by  yielding  to 
Prussia  both  upper  and  lower  Silesia  and  the  principality  of  Glatz. 
Thus  ended  the  First  Silesian  War,  which  added  to  Prussia  a  great 
province  and  more  than  a  million  subjects. 

The  most  dangerous  enemy  of  Austria  being  thus  temporarily 
removed,  the  fortunes  of  Maria  Theresa  speedily  changed,  espe- 
cially since  England,  Holland,  and  Hanover  entered  into  an  alli- 
ance to  support  her  against  France.  George  II.  of  England  took 
the  field  in  person,  and  was  victorious  over  the  French  in  the  battle 
of  Dettingen  (not  far  from  Frankfort),  in  June,  1743.  After  this 
Saxony  joined  the  Austrian  alliance,  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse, 
who  cared  nothing  for  the  war,  but  was  willing  to  make  money, 
sold  an  equal  number  of  soldiers  to  France  and*  to  England.  Fred- 
erick II.  saw  that  France  would  not  be  able  to  stand  long  against 
such  a  coalition,  and  he  knew  that  the  success  of  Austria  would 
probably  be  followed  by  an  attempt  to  regain  Silesia;  therefore, 
regardless  of  appearances,  he  entered  into  a  compact  with  France 
and  the  Emperor  Charles  VII.,  and  prepared  for  another  war. 

In  the  summer  of  1744  he  marched  into  Bohemia  with  an  army 
of  80,000  men,  took  Prague  on  September  16,  and  conquered 
the  greater  part  of  the  country.  But  the  Bohemians  were  hos- 
tile to  him,  the  Hungarians  rose  again  in  defense  of  Austria, 
and  an  army  under  Charles  of  Lorraine,  which  was  operating 
against  the  French  in  Alsatia,  was  recalled  to  resist  his  advance. 
He  was  forced  to  retreat  in  the  dead  of  winter,  leaving  many  cannon 
behind  him,  and  losing  a  large  number  of  soldiers  on  the  way.  On 
January  20,  1745,  Charles  VII.  died,  and  his  son.  Max  Joseph, 
gave  up  his  pretensions  to  the  imperial  crown,  on  condition  of 
having  Bavaria  (which  Austria  had  meanwhile  conquered)  restored 
to  him.     France  thereupon  practically  withdrew  from  the  struggle, 


FREDERICK     THE     GREAT  331 

1745-1746 

leaving  Prussia  in  the  lurch.  Frederick  stood  alone,  with  Aus- 
tria, Saxony,  and  Poland  united  against  him,  and  a  prospect  of 
England  and  Russia  being  added  to  the  number.  The  tables  had 
turned,  and  he  was  very  much  in  the  condition  of  Maria  Theresa 
four  years  before. 

In  May,  1745,  Silesia  was  invaded  with  an  army  of  100,000 
Austrians  and  Saxons.  Frederick  marched  against  them  with  a 
much  smaller  force,  met  them  at  Hohenfriedberg,  and  gave  battle 
on  June  4.  He  began  with  a  furious  charge  of  Prussian  cavalry 
at  dawn,  and  by  nine  o'clock  the  enemy  was  utterly  routed,  leav- 
ing 66  standards,  5000  dead  and  wounded,  and  7000  prisoners. 
This  victory  produced  a  great  effect  throughout  Europe.  England 
intervened  in  favor  of  peace,  and  Frederick  declared  that  he  would 
only  fight  until  the  possession  of  Silesia  was  firmly  guaranteed  to 
him;  but  Maria  Theresa  (who  hated  Frederick  intensely,  as  she  had 
good  reason  to  do)  answered  that  she  would  sooner  part  with  the 
clothes  on  her  body  than  give  up  Silesia. 

Frederick  entered  Bohemia  with  18,000  men,  and  on  Sep- 
tember 30  was  attacked,  at  a  village  called  Soor,  by  a  force  of 
40,000.  Nevertheless  he  managed  his  cavalry  so  admirably  that 
he  gained  the  victory.  Then,  learning  that  the  Saxons  were  pre- 
paring to  invade  Prussia  in  his  rear,  he  garrisoned  all  the  passes 
leading  from  Bohemia  into  Silesia,  and  marched  into  Saxony  with 
his  main  force.  The  "  Old  Dessauer,"  as  Prince  Leopold  was 
called,  took  Leipzig,  and,  pressing  forward,  won  another  great 
victory  on  December  15,  at  Kesselsdorf.  Frederick,  who  arrived 
on  the  field  at  the  close  of  the  fight,  embraced  the  old  veteran 
in  the  sight  of  the  army.  The  next  day  the  Prussians  took 
possession  of  Dresden.  The  capital  was  not  damaged,  but  like 
the  other  cities  of  Saxony,  was  made  to  pay  a  heavy  contribution. 
Peace  was  concluded  with  Austria  ten  days  afterward.  Prussia 
was  confirmed  in  the  possession  of  all  Silesia  and  Glatz,  and  Fred- 
erick agreed  to  recognize  Francis  of  Lorraine,  Maria  Theresa's 
husband,  who  had  already  been  crowned  emperor  at  Frankfort,  as 
Francis  1.  Thus  ended  the  Second  Silesian  War.  Frederick  was 
first  called  "  the  Great "  on  his  return  to  Berlin,  where  he  was  re- 
ceived with  boundless  popular  rejoicings. 

The  "  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,"  as  it  was  called,  lasted 
three  years  longer,  but  its  character  was  changed.  The  field  of 
operations  was  shifted  to  Italy  and  Flanders.    In  Flanders,  Maurice 


332  GERMANY 

1746-1757 

of  Saxony  (better  known  as  Marshal  de  Saxe),  one  of  the  many  sons 
of  Augustus  the  Strong,  was  signally  successful.  He  conquered 
the  greater  part  of  the  Austrian  Netherlands  for  France.  Mean- 
while, in  1746,  Austria,  although  she  had  regained  much  of  her 
lost  ground  in  northern  Italy,  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Empress 
Elizabeth  of  Russia,  who  furnished  an  army  of  40,ocx)  men.  The 
money  of  France  was  exhausted,  and  Louis  XV.  found  it  best  to 
make  peace,  which  was  concluded  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  October, 
1748.  He  gave  up  all  the  conquests  which  France  had  made  during 
the  war.  Austria  yielded  Parma  and  Piacenza  to  Spain,  a  portion 
of  Lombardy  to  Sardinia,  and  again  confirmed  Frederick  the  Great 
in  the  possession  of  Silesia. 

After  the  Peace  of  Dresden,  in  1745,  Prussia  enjoyed  a  rest 
of  nearly  eleven  years.  Frederick's  first  care  was  to  heal  the  wounds 
which  his  two  Silesian  wars  had  made  in  the  population  and  the 
prosperity  of  his  people  He  called  himself  "  the  first  servant  of 
the  state,"  and  no  civil  officer  under  him  labored  half  so  earnestly 
and  zealously.  He  was  the  very  embodiment  of  the  German 
PHicht,  or  sense  of  duty.  His  whole  reign  was  an  illustration  of  a 
maxim  which  he  sets  forth  in  one  of  his  essays :  "  The  people  are 
not  there  for  the  sake  of  the  rulers,  but  the  rulers  for  the  sake  of  the 
people."  He  looked  upon  his  kingdom  as  a  landholder  would  look 
upon  a  large  estate  which  must  be  carefully  managed  and  cared 
for  so  that  it  should  become  productive  and  prosperous.  Therefore 
Frederick  insisted  that  all  questions  which  required  settlement,  all 
changes  necessary  to  be  made,  even  the  least  infractions  of  the  laws, 
should  be  referred  directly  to  himself,  so  that  his  secretaries  had 
much  more  to  do  than  his  ministers.  While  he  claimed  the  abso- 
lute right  to  govern,  he  accepted  all  the  responsibility  which  it 
brought  upon  him.  He  made  himself  acquainted  with  every  vil- 
lage and  landed  estate  in  his  kingdom,  watched  as  far  as  possible 
over  every  official,  and  personally  studied  the  operation  of  every 
reform.  He  rose  at  four  or  five  o'clock,  and  labored  at  his  desk  for 
hours,  reading  the  multitude  of  reports  and  letters  of  complaint  or 
appeal,  which  came  simply  addressed  "  to  the  King."  His  even- 
ings were  usually  spent  in  conversation  with  men  of  culture  and 
intelligence,  and  in  practice  on  his  beloved  flute.  His  literary  tastes, 
however,  remained  French  all  his  life.  His  many  works  were 
written  in  that  language,  he  preferred  to  speak  it,  and  he  sneered  at 
German  literature  at  a  time  when  authors  like  Lessing,  Klopstock, 


FREDERICK     THE     GREAT  333 

1746-1757 

Herder,  and  Goethe  were  gradually  lifting  it  to  its  most  glorious 
height. 

His  rough,  practical  common  sense  as  a  ruler  is  very  well 
illustrated  by  his  remarks  upon  the  documents  sent  for  his  inspec- 
tion, many  of  which  are  still  preserved.  On  the  back  of  the  "  Peti- 
tion from  the  merchant  Simon  of  Stettin,  to  be  allowed  to  purchase 
an  estate  for  40,000  thalers,"  he  wrote :  "  Forty  thousand  thalers 
invested  in  commerce  will  yield  8  per  cent.,  in  landed  property  only 
4  per  cent, ;  so  this  man  does  not  understand  his  own  business." 
On  the  "  Petition  from  the  city  of  Frankfort-on-Oder,  against  the 
quartering  of  troops  upon  them,"  he  wrote :  "  Why,  it  cannot  be 
otherwise.  Do  they  think  I  can  put  the  regiment  into  my  pocket? 
But  the  barracks  shall  be  rebuilt."  And  finally,  on  the  "  Petition 
of  the  Chamberlain,  Baron  Miiller,  for  leave  to  visit  the  baths  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle,"  he  wrote :  "  What  would  he  do  there  ?  He  would 
gamble  away  the  little  money  he  has  left,  and  come  back  like  a  beg- 
gar." The  expenses  of  Frederick's  own  court  were  restricted  to 
about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year,  at  a  time  when  nearly 
every  petty  prince  in  Germany  was  spending  from  five  to  ten  times 
that  sum. 

In  the  administration  of  justice  and  the  establishment  of  entire 
religious  liberty  Prussia  rapidly  became  a  model  which  put  to 
sliame  and  disturbed  most  of  the  other  German  states.  Frederick 
openly  declared :  "  I  mean  that  every  man  in  my  kingdom  shall 
have  the  right  to  be  saved  in  his  own  way,"  In  Silesia,  where  the 
Protestants  had  been  persecuted  under  Austria,  the  Catholics  were 
now  free  and  contented.  This  course  gave  him  a  great  popularity 
outside  of  Prussia  among  the  common  people,  and  for  the  first  time 
in  two  centuries  the  hope  ot  better  times  began  to  revive  among 
them.  Frederick  was  as  absolute  a  despot  as  any  of  his  fellow- 
rulers  of  the  day;  but  his  was  a  despotism  of  intelligence,  justice, 
and  conscience,  opposed  to  that  of  ignorance,  bigotry,  and  selfishness. 

Agriculture  was  favored  in  every  possible  way.  Great  tracts 
of  marshy  land  which  had  been  uninhabited  were  transformed  into 
fertile  and  populous  regions ;  canals,  roads,  and  bridges  were  built, 
and  new  markets  for  produce  established.  The  cultivation  of  the 
potato,  up  to  that  time  unknown  in  Germany  as  an  article  of  food, 
was  forced  upon  the  unwilling  farmers.  In  return  for  all  these 
advantages  the  people  were  heavily  taxed,  but  not  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  impoverish  them,  as  in  Saxony  and  Austria.     The  army  was 


834  GERMANY 

1755-1757 

not  only  kept  up,  but  largely  increased,  for  Frederick  knew  that  the 
peace  which  Prussia  enjoyed  could  not  last  long. 

The  clouds  of  war  slowly  gathered  on  the  political  horizon. 
The  peace  of  Europe  was  broken  by  the  quarrel  between  England 
and  France,  in  1755,  in  regard  to  the  boundaries  between  Canada 
and  the  English  colonies.  This  involved  danger  to  Hanover,  over 
which  the  kings  of  England  ruled  with  the  title  of  elector.  To 
protect  Hanover  against  French  attacks  England  now  proposed  to 
Maria  Theresa  an  alliance  against  France.  The  minister  of  the 
empress  was  at  this  time  Count  Kaunitz,  who  fully  shared  her 
hatred  of  Frederick  II.,  and  determined,  with  her,  to  use  this  oppor- 
tunity to  recover  Silesia.  She  therefore  refused  England's  propo- 
sition, and  wrote  a  flatterjng  letter  to  Madame  de  Pompadour,  the 
favorite  of  Louis  XV.,  to  prepare  the  way  for  an  alliance  between 
Austria  and  France.  At  the  same  time  secret  negotiations  were 
carried  on  with  Elizabeth  of  Russia,  who  was  mortally  offended 
with  Frederick  II.  on  account  of  some  disparaging  remarks  he  had 
made  about  her.  Louis  XV.,  nevertheless,  hesitated  until  Maria 
Theresa  promised  to  give  him  the  Austrian  Netherlands  in  return 
for  his  assistance.  Then  the  compact  between  the  three  great  mil- 
itary powers  of  the  Continent  (Austria,  Russia,  and  France)  was 
concluded,  and  everything  was  quietly  arranged  for  commencing 
the  war  against  Prussia  in  the  spring  of  1757.  So  sure  were  they 
of  success  that  they  agreed  beforehand  on  the  manner  in  which  the 
Prussian  Kingdom  should  be  cut  up  and  divided  among  themselves 
and  the  other  states. 

Through  his  paid  agents  at  the  different  courts,  and  especially 
through  the  Crown  Prince  Peter  of  Russia,  who  was  one  of  his 
most  enthusiastic  admirers,  Frederick  was  well  informed  of  these 
plans.  He  saw  that  the  coalition  was  too  powerful  to  be  defeated 
by  diplomacy.  His  ruin  was  determined  upon,  and  he  could  only 
prevent  it  by  accepting  war  even  again^  overwhelming  odds.  Eng- 
land was  the  only  great  power  which  could  assist  him;  Austria's 
policy  left  her  no  alternative.  England  concluded  an  alliance  with 
Prussia  in  January,  1756,  but  her  assistance  afterward  was  fur- 
nished in  the  shape  of  money  rather  than  troops.  The  small  states 
of  Brunswick,  Hesse-Cassel,  and  Saxe-Gotha  were  persuaded  to 
join  Prussia,  but  they  added  very  little  to  Frederick's  strength,  be- 
cause Bavaria  and  all  the  principalities  along  the  Rhine  were  certain 
to  go  with  France  in  a  general  German  war.     Thus  was  accom- 


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FREDERICK    THE     GREAT  885 

1756-1757 

plished  the  "  diplomatic  revolution  "  by  which  England  and  Prussia 
stood  arrayed  against  Austria,  France,  and  Russia  in  the  world- 
wide struggle  known  as  the  Seven  Years'  War  (1756- 1763). 

Knowing  when  the  combined  movement  against  him  was  to 
be  made,  Frederick  boldly  determined  to  anticipate  it.  Disregard- 
ing the  neutrality  of  Saxony,  he  crossed  its  frontier  on  August 
29,  1756,  with  an  army  of  nearly  70,000  men.  Ten  days  after- 
ward he  entered  Dresden,  besieged  the  Saxon  army  of  17,000 
in  their  fortified  camp  on  the  Elbe,  and  pushed  a  column  forward 
into  Bohemia.  Maria  Theresa  collected  her  forces  and  sent  an 
army  of  70,000  in  all  haste  against  him.  Frederick  met  them  with 
20,000  men  at  Lobositz,  on  October  i,  and  after  hard  fighting 
gained  a  victory  by  the  use  of  the  bayonet.  He  wrote  to  Mar- 
shal Schwerin :  "  Never  have  my  Prussians  performed  such 
miracles  of  bravery  since  I  had  the  honor  to  command  them."  The 
Saxons  surrendered  soon  afterward,  and  Frederick  went  into  win- 
ter quarters,  secure  against  any  further  attack  before  the  spring. 

This  was  a  severe  check  to  the  plans  of  the  allied  powers,  and 
they  made  every  effort  to  retrieve  it  by  their  preparations  for  the 
campaign  of  1757.  Sweden  was  induced  to  join  them,  and  "the 
German  Empire,"  through  its  almost  forgotten  diet,  declared  war 
against  Prussia.  All  together  raised  an  armed  force  of  430,000 
men,  while  Frederick,  with  the  greatest  exertion,  could  barely  raise 
200,000.  England  sent  him  an  utterly  useless  general,  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  but  no  soldiers.  Frederick  dispatched  a  part  of 
his  army  to  meet  the  Russians  and  Swedes,  marched  with  the  rest 
into  Bohemia,  and  on  May  6  won  a  decided  but  very  bloody 
victory  before  the  walls  of  Pragfue.  The  old  hero,  Schwerin,  charg- 
ing at  the  head  of  his  troops,  was  slain,  and  the  entire  loss  of  the 
Prussians  was  18,000  killed  and  wounded.  But  there  was  still  a 
large  Austrian  army  in  Prague.  The  city  was  besieged  with  the 
utmost  vigor  for  five  weeks,  and  was  on  the  very  point  of  surren- 
dering when  Frederick  heard  that  another  Austrian  army,  com- 
manded by  Daun,  was  marching  to  its  rescue. 

He  thereupon  raised  the  siege,  hastened  onward,  and  met  Daun 
at  Kollin,  near  the  Elbe,  on  June  18.  He  had  31,000  men  and 
the  Austrians  54,000.  He  prepared  an  excellent  plan  of  battle, 
then  deviated  from  it,  and  commenced  the  attack,  against  the 
advice  of  General  Zieten,  his  chief  commander.  His  haste  and 
stubbornness  nearly  proved  his  ruin.    He  tried  to  retrieve  the  for- 


886  GERMANY 

1787 

tunes  of  the  day  by  personally  leading  his  soldiers  against  the  Aus- 
trian batteries,  but  in  vain ;  they  were  repulsed,  with  a  loss  of  14,000 
dead  and  wounded.  That  evening  Frederick  was  found  alone, 
seated  on  a  log,  drawing  figures  in  the  sand  with  his  cane.  He 
shed  tears  on  hearing  of  the  slaughter  of  all  his  best  guardsmen; 
then,  after  a  long  silence,  said :  "  It  is  a  day  of  sorrow  for  us,  my 
children,  but  have  patience,  for  all  will  yet  be  well." 

The  defeat  at  Kollin  threw  Frederick's  plans  into  confusion. 
It  was  now  necessary  to  give  up  Bohemia,  and  simply  act  on  the 
defensive  on  Prussian  soil.  Here  he  was  met  by  the  news  of  fresh 
disasters.  His  other  army  had  been  defeated  by  a  much  superior 
Russian  force,  and  the  useless  Duke  of  Cumberland  had  surrendered 
Hanover  to  the  French.  But  the  Russians  had  retreated,  after 
their  victory,  instead  of  advancing,  and  Frederick's  general,  Leh- 
wald,  then  easily  repulsed  the  Swedes,  who  had  invaded  Pomerania. 
By  this  time  a  combined  French  and  German  army  of  60,000  men, 
under  Marshal  Soubise,  was  approaching  from  the  west,  confident 
of  an  easy  victory  and  comfortable  winter  quarters  in  Berlin.  Fred- 
erick united  his  scattered  and  diminished  forces.  They  only 
amounted  to  22,000,  and  great  was  the  amusement  of  the  French 
when  they  learned  that  he  meant  to  dispute  their  advance. 

After  some  preliminary  maneuvering  the  two  armies  ap- 
proached each  other,  on  November  5,  at  Rossbach,  near  the  Saale, 
west  of  Leipzig.  When  Marshal  Soubise  saw  the  Prussian  camp 
he  said  to  his  officers :  "  It  is  only  a  breakfast  for  us ! "  and 
ordered  his  forces  to  be  spread  out  so  as  to  cut  off  the  retreat  of  the 
enemy.  Frederick  was  at  dinner  when  he  received  the  news  of 
the  approaching  attack.  He  immediately  broke  up  his  camp  and  with- 
drew his  army  to  a  range  of  low  hills  which  concealed  his  move- 
ments. 

The  French,  supposing  that  he  was  retreating,  pressed  for- 
ward with  music  and  shouts  of  triumph;  then,  suddenly,  Seid- 
litz,  in  accordance  with  Frederick's  well-conceived  plan,  burst  upon 
them  with  his  8000  cavalry,  and  immediately  afterward  Frederick's 
cannon  began  to  play  upon  their  ranks  from  his  commanding  po- 
sition on  the  hills.  The  French  were  thrown  into  confusion  by 
this  surprise.  Frederick  and  his  brother.  Prince  Henry,  led  the 
infantry  against  them,  and  in  an  hour  and  a  half  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  battle  the  French  were  flying  from  the  field  in  the 
wildest  panic,  leaving  everything  behind  them.     Nine  generals. 


FREDERICK    THE    GREAT  «87 

1757 

320  other  officers,  and  7000  men  were  made  prisoners,  and  all  the 
artillery,  arms,  and  stores  captured.  The  Prussian  loss  was  only 
91  dead  and  274  wounded. 

The  remnant  of  the  French  army  never  halted  until  it  reached 
the  Rhine.  All  danger  from  the  west  was  now  at  an  end,  and  Fred- 
erick hastened  toward  Silesia,  which  had  in  the  meantime  been  occu- 
pied by  a  powerful  Austrian  army  under  Charles  of  Lorraine.  By 
making  forced  marches,  in  three  weeks  Frederick  effected  a  junction 
near  Breslau  with  his  retreating  Prussians,  and  found  himself  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  about  32,000  men.  Charles  of  Lorraine  and 
Marshal  Daun  had  united  their  forces,  taken  Breslau,  and  opposed 
him  with  a  body  of  more  than  80,000 ;  but  instead  of  awaiting  his 
attack,  they  moved  forward  to  meet  him.  Near  the  little  town  of 
Leuthen  the  two  came  together.  Frederick  summoned  his  generals, 
and  addressed  them  in  a  stirring  speech :  "  Against  all  the  rules 
of  military  science,"  he  said,  "  I  am  going  to  engage  an  army 
nearly  three  times  greater  than  my  own.  We  must  beat  the  enemy, 
or  all  together  make  for  ourselves  graves  before  his  batteries. 
This  I  mean,  and  thus  will  I  act.  Remember  that  you  are  Prus- 
sians. If  one  among  you  fears  to  share  the  last  danger  with  me, 
he  may  resign  now,  without  hearing  a  word  of  reproof  from  me." 

The  king's  heroic  courage  was  shared  by  his  officers  and 
soldiers.  At  dawn,  on  December  5,  the  troops  sang  a  sol- 
emn hymn,  after  which  shouts  of  "  It  is  again  the  5th ! "  and 
"  Rossbach ! "  rang  through  the  army.  Frederick  called  General 
Zieten  to  him  and  said :  "  I  am  going  to  expose  myself  more  than 
ordinarily  to-day.  Should  I  fall,  cover  my  body  with  your  cloak, 
and  say  nothing  to  anyone.  The  fight  must  go  on  and  the  enemy 
must  be  beaten."  With  his  infantry  in  a  new  formation,  unknown 
hitherto,  he  made  a  sudden  oblique  attack  on  the  left  flank  of  the 
Austrian  army,  while  his  cavalry  engaged  its  right  flank.  Both 
attacks  were  so  desperate  that  the  Austrians  struggled  in  vain  to 
recover  their  ground.  After  several  hours  of  hard  fighting  they 
gave  way,  then  broke  up  and  fled  in  disorder,  losing  more  than 
20,000  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners.  The  Prussian  loss  was 
about  5000.  The  cold  winter  night  came  down  on  the  battlefield, 
still  covered  with  wounded  and  dying  and  resounding  cries  of 
suffering.  All  at  once  a  Prussian  grenadier  began  to  sing  a  hymn : 
"  Now  let  all  hearts  thank  God  " ;  the  regiment  nearest  him  pres- 
ently joined,  then  the  military  bands,  and  soon  the  entire  arm^^ 


388  GERMANY 

1757-1758 

united  in  the  grand  choral  of  thanksgiving.  Thus  gloriously  for 
Prussia  closed  the  second  year  of  this  remarkable  war. 

Frederick  immediately  took  Breslau,  with  its  garrison  of 
17,000  Austrians,  and  all  of  Silesia  except  the  fortress  of  Schweid- 
nitz.  During  the  winter  Maria  Theresa  made  vigorous  prepara- 
tions for  a  renewal  of  the  war,  and  urged  Russia  and  France  to 
make  fresh  exertions.  The  reputation  which  Frederick  had  gained, 
however,  brought  him  also  some  assistance.  After  the  victories 
of  Rossbach  and  Leuthen  there  was  so  much  popular  enthusiasm 
for  him  in  England  that  the  government  granted  him  a  subsidy 
of  four  million  thalers  annually,  and  allowed  him  to  appoint  a 
commander  for  the  troops  of  Hanover  and  the  other  allied  states. 
Frederick  selected  Duke  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  who  operated 
with  him  with  so  much  skill  and  energy  that  by  the  summer  of  1758 
he  had  driven  the  French  from  all  northern  Germany. 

In  the  campaign  of  1758  Frederick,  as  usual,  resumed  his 
work  before  the  Austrians  were  ready.  He  took  Schweidnitz, 
reestablished  his  rule  over  Silesia,  penetrated  into  Moravia,  and 
laid  siege  to  Olmiitz.  But  the  Austrian  Marshal  Laudon  cut  off 
his  communications  with  Silesia  and  forced  him  to  retreat  across 
the  frontier,  where  he  established  himself  in  a  fortified  camp  near 
Landshut.  The  Russians  by  this  time  had  conquered  the  whole  of 
the  duchy  of  Prussia,  had  invaded  Pomerania,  which  they  plun- 
dered and  laid  waste,  and  were  approaching  the  River  Oder.  On 
receiving  this  news  Frederick  left  Marshal  Keith  in  command  of 
his  camp,  took  what  troops  could  be  spared  and  marched  against 
his  third  enemy,  whom  he  met  on  August  25,  1758,  near  the 
village  of  Zorndorf,  where  the  Netze  flows  into  the  Oder.  The 
battle  lasted  from  nine  in  the  morning  until  ten  at  night.  Frederick 
had  32,000  men,  mostly  new  recruits,  the  Russian  General  Fermor 
50,000.  The  Prussian  lines  were  repeatedly  broken,  but  as  often 
restored  by  the  bravery  of  General  Seidlitz,  who  finally  won  the 
battle  by  daring  to  disobey  Frederick's  orders.  The  latter  sent 
word  to  him  that  he  must  answer  for  his  disobedience  with  his 
head,  but  Seidlitz  replied :  "  Tell  the  king  he  may  have  my  head 
when  the  battle  is  over,  but  until  then  I  must  use  it  in  his  service." 
When  late  at  night  the  Russians  were  defeated,  leaving  20,000  dead 
upon  the  field — for  the  Prussians  gave  them  no  quarter — Frederick 
embraced  Seidlitz,  crying  out:    "I  owe  the  victory  to  you!" 

The  three  great  powers  had  been  successively  repelled,  but 


FREDERICK    THE     GREAT  339 

1758-1759 

the  Strength  of  Austria  was  not  yet  broken.  Marshal  Daun 
marched  into  Saxony  and  besieged  the  fortified  camp  of  Prince 
Henry,  thus  obliging  Frederick  to  hasten  to  his  rescue.  The  lat- 
ter's  confidence  in  himself  had  been  so  exalted  by  his  victories 
that  he  and  his  entire  army  would  have  been  lost  but  for  the  pru- 
dent watchfulness  of  Zieten.  All  except  the  latter  and  his  hussars 
wei'e  quietly  sleeping  at  Hochkirch,  on  the  night  of  October  13, 
when  the  camp  was  suddenly  attacked  by  Daun,  in  overwhelm- 
ing force.  The  village  was  set  on  fire,  the  Prussian  batteries 
captured,  and  a  terrible  fight  ensued.  Prince  Francis  of  Brunswick 
and  Marshal  Keith  were  killed  and  Prince  Maurice  of  Dessau  se- 
verely wounded.  The  Prussians  defended  themselves  heroically, 
but  at  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  14th  they  were  com- 
pelled to  retreat,  leaving  all  their  artillery  and  camp  equipage  be- 
hind them.  This  was  the  last  event  of  the  campaign  of  1758,  and 
it  was  a  bad  omen  for  the  following  year. 

Frederick  tried  to  negotiate  for  peace,  but  in  vain.  The 
strength  of  his  army  was  gone ;  his  victories  had  been  dearly  bought 
with  the  loss  of  all  his  best  regiments.  Austria  and  Russia  re- 
inforced their  armies  and  planned  this  time  to  unite  in  Silesia, 
while  the  French,  who  defeated  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  in  April, 
1759,  regained  possession  of  Hanover.  Frederick  was  obliged  to 
divide  his  troops  and  send  an  army  under  General  Wedel  against 
the  Russians,  while  he,  with  a  very  reduced  force,  attempted  to 
check  the  Austrians  in  Silesia.  Wedel  was  defeated,  and  the 
junction  of  his  two  enemies  could  no  longer  be  prevented;  they 
marched  against  him,  70,000  strong,  and  took  up  a  position  at 
Kunersdorf,  opposite  Frankfort-on-Oder.  Frederick  had  but  48,- 
000  men,  after  calling  together  almost  the  entire  military  strength 
of  his  kingdom,  and  many  of  these  were  raw  recruits  who  had 
never  smelled  powder. 

On  August  12,  1759,  after  the  good  news  arrived  that  Fer- 
dinand of  Brunswick  had  defeated  the  French  at  Minden,  Fred- 
erick gave  battle.  At  the  end  of  six  hours  the  Russian  left  wing 
gave  way;  then  Frederick,  against  the  advice  of  Seidlitz,  ordered 
a  charge  upon  the  right  wing,  which  occupied  a  very  strong 
position  and  was  supported  by  the  Austrian  army.  Seidlitz 
twice  refused  to  make  the  charge;  and  then  when  he  yielded,  was 
struck  down  and  severely  wounded,  after  his  cavalry  had  been  cut 
to  pieces.    Frederick  himself  led  the  troops  to  fresh  slaughter,  but 


340  GERMANY 

1759-1760 

all  in  vain.  They  fell  in  whole  battalions  before  the  terrible 
artillery  fire,  until  20,000  lay  upon  the  field.  The  enemy  charged 
in  turn,  and  the  Prussian  army  was  scattered  in  all  direction.  For 
the  moment  Frederick's  hitherto  never-failing  courage  and  energy 
were  gone.  He  passed  through  the  darkest  gloom  of  despair.  To 
his  minister  at  Berlin  he  sent  a  despairing  dispatch :  "  Of  an  army 
of  48,000  there  are  not  at  this  moment  3000  left.  The  consequences 
of  the  battle  will  be  worse  than  the  battle  itself.  I  have  no  more 
resources,  and,  not  to  hide  the  truth,  I  consider  that  all  is  lost.  I 
shall  not  survive  the  ruin  of  my  country.  Farewell  forever."  But 
he  soon  plucked  up  his  hopes  and  spirits  at  the  good  news  that  the 
Russian  and  Austrian  commanders  had  fallen  out  with  one  another. 
Soltikov,  the  Russian  refused  to  advance  on  Berlin,  and  fell  back 
upon  Silesia  to  rest  his  troops.  He  complained  that  he  and  the 
Russians  had  done  all  the  fighting  and  did  not  receive  enough  sup- 
port from  Daun  and  the  Austrians.  Daun,  meanwhile,  marched 
into  Saxony,  took  Dresden,  which  the  Prussians  had  held  up  to  that 
time,  and  made  12,000  prisoners.  Thus  ended  this  unfortunate 
year.  Prussia  was  in  such  an  exhausted  condition  that  it  seemed 
impossible  to  raise  more  men  or  more  money  to  carry  on  the  war. 
Frederick  tried  every  means  to  break  the  alliance  of  his  enemies, 
or  to  acquire  new  allies  for  himself,  even  appealing  to  Spain  and 
Turkey,  but  without  effect.  In  the  spring  of  1760  the  armies  of 
Austria,  "the  German  Empire,"  Russia,  and  Sweden  amounted  to 
280,000,  to  meet  which  he  was  barely  able,  by  making  every  sac- 
rifice, to  raise  90,000.  In  Hanover  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  had 
75,000,  opposed  by  a  French  army  of  115,000. 

Silesia  was  still  the  bone  of  contention,  and  it  was  planned 
that  the  Austrian  and  Russian  armies  should  unite  there,  as  before. 
Frederick  was  equally  determined  to  prevent  their  junction,  and 
to  hold  the  province  for  himself.  But  he  first  sent  Prince  Henry 
and  General  Fouque  to  Silesia,  while  he  undertook  to  regain  pos- 
session of  Saxony.  He  bombarded  Dresden  furiously,  without 
success,  and  was  then  called  away  by  the  news  that  Fouque  with 
7000  men  had  been  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  near  Landshut. 
All  Silesia  was  overrun  by  the  Austrians,  except  Breslau,  which 
was  heroically  defended  by  a  small  force.  Marshal  Laudon  was  in 
command,  and  as  the  Russians  had  not  yet  arrived,  he  effected  a 
junction  with  Daun,  who  had  followed  Frederick  from  Saxony. 
On  August  15,  1760,  they  attacked  him  at  Liegnitz  with  a  com- 


FREDERICK     THE     GREAT  841 

1760 

bined  force  of  95,000  men.  Although  he  had  but  35,000,  he 
won  such  a  splendid  victory  that  the  Russian  army  turned  back 
on  hearing  of  it,  and  in  a  short  time  Silesia,  except  the  fortress 
of  Glatz,  was  restored  to  Prussia. 

Nevertheless,  while  Frederick  was  engaged  in  following  up 
his  victory,  the  Austrians  and  Russians  came  to  an  understanding, 
and  moved  suddenly  upon  Berlin — the  Russians  from  the  Oder, 
the  Austrians  and  Saxons  combined  from  Lusatia.  The  city  de- 
fended itself  for  a  few  days,  but  surrendered  on  October  9.  A 
contribution  of  1,700,000  thalers  was  levied  by  the  conquerors, 
the  Saxons  ravaged  the  royal  palace  at  Charlottenburg,  but  the 
Russians  and  Austrians  committed  few  depredations.  Four  days 
afterward  the  news  that  Frederick  was  hastening  to  the  relief  of 
Berlin  compelled  the  enemy  to  leave.  Without  attempting  to  pursue 
them,  Frederick  turned  and  marched  back  to  Silesia,  where,  on 
November  3,  he  met  the  Austrians,  under  Daun,  at  Torgau.  This 
was  one  of  the  bloodiest  battles  of  the  Seven  Years'  War. 
The  Prussian  army  was  divided  between  Frederick  and  Zieten,  the 
former  undertaking  to  storm  the  Austrian  position  in  front  while 
the  latter  attacked  their  flank.  But  Frederick,  either  too  impetu- 
ous or  mistaken  in  the  signals,  moved  too  soon,  A  terrible  day's 
fight  followed,  and  when  night  came  10,000  of  his  soldiers,  dead 
or  wounded,  lay  upon  the  field.  He  sat  all  night  in  the  village 
church,  making  plans  for  the  morrow;  then,  in  the  early  dawn, 
Zieten  came  and  announced  that  he  had  been  victorious  on  the 
Austrian  flank,  and  they  were  in  full  retreat.  After  which,  turning 
to  his  soldiers,  Zieten  cried :  "  Boys,  hurrah  for  our  king ! — he  has 
won  the  battle !  "  The  men  answered :  "  Hurrah  for  Fritz,  our 
king,  and  hurrah  for  Father  Zieten,  too !  "  The  Prussian  loss  was 
13,000,  the  Austrian  20,000, 

Although  Prussia  had  been  defended  with  such  astonishing 
vigor  and  courage  during  the  year  1760,  the  end  of  the  campaign 
found  her  greatly  weakened.  The  Austrians  held  Dresden  and 
Glatz,  two  important  strategic  points,  Russia  and  France  were 
far  from  being  exhausted,  and  every  attempt  of  Frederick  to 
strengthen  himself  by  alliance — even  with  Turkey  and  with  Cos- 
sack and  Tartar  chieftains — came  to  nothing.  In  October,  1760, 
George  H.  of  England  died,  there  was  a  change  of  ministry,  and 
the  four  millions  of  thalers  which  Prussia  had  received  for  three 
years  were  cut  off.     The  French,  under  Marshals  Broglie  and 


84S  GERMANY 

1760-17«2 

Soubise,  had  been  bravely  met  by  Duke  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick, 
but  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  prevent  them  from  quartering 
themselves  for  the  winter  in  Cassel  and  Gottingen.  Under  these 
discouraging  aspects  the  year  1761  opened. 

The  first  events  were  fortunate.  Duke  Ferdinand  moved 
against  the  French  in  February  and  drove  them  back  nearly  to 
the  Rhine ;  the  army  of  "  the  German  Empire  "  was  expelled  from 
Thuring^a  by  a  small  detachment  of  Prussians,  and  Prince  Henry, 
Frederick's  brother,  maintained  himself  in  Saxony  against  the  much 
stronger  Austrian  army  of  Marshal  Daun.  These  successes  left 
Frederick  free  to  act  with  all  his  remaining  forces  against  the 
Austrians  in  Silesia,  under  Laudon,  and  their  Russian  allies  who 
were  marching  through  Poland  to  unite  with  them  a  third  time. 
But  their  combined  force  was  140,000  men,  his  barely  55,000.  By 
the  most  skillful  military  tactics,  marching  rapidly  back  and  forth, 
threatening  first  one  and  then  the  other,  he  kept  them  asunder 
until  the  middle  of  August,  when  they  effected  a  junction  in  spite 
of  him.  Then  he  entrenched  himself  so  strongly  in  a  fortified  camp 
near  Schweidnitz  that  they  did  not  dare  to  attack  him  immediately. 
Marshal  Laudon  and  the  Russian  commander,  Buturlin,  quarreled, 
in  consequence  of  which  a  large  part  of  the  Russian  army  left  and 
marched  northward  into  Pomerania.  Then  Frederick  would  have 
given  battle,  but  on  October  i,  Laudon  took  Schweidnitz  by  storm 
and  so  strengthened  his  position  thereby  that  it  would  have  been 
useless  to  attack  him. 

Frederick's  prospects  were  darker  than  ever  when  the  year 
1 76 1  came  to  a  close.  On  December  16  the  Swedes  and  Russians 
took  the  important  fortress  of  Colberg,  on  the  Baltic  coast.  Half 
Pomerania  was  in  their  hands,  more  than  half  of  Silesia  in  the 
hands  of  the  Austrians,  Prince  Henry  was  hard  pressed  in  Saxony, 
and  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  was  barely  able  to  hold  back  the 
French.  On  all  sides  the  allied  enemies  were  closing  in  upon  Prus- 
sia, whose  people  could  no  longer  furnish  soldiers  or  pay  taxes. 
For  more  than  a  year  the  country  had  been  hanging  on  the  verge  of 
ruin,  and  while  Frederick's  true  greatness  had  been  illustrated  in 
his  unyielding  courage,  his  unshaken  energy,  his  determination 
never  to  give  up,  he  was  almost  powerless  to  plan  any  further 
measures  of  defense.  With  four  millions  of  people  he  had  for  six 
years  fought  powers  which  embraced  eighty  millions;  but  now  half 
his  territory  was  lost  to  him  and  the  other  half  utterly  exhausted. 


FREDERICK    THE     GREAT  343 

17«2-17tt 

Suddenly,  in  the  darkest  hour,  light  came.  In  January,  1762, 
Frederick's  bitter  enemy,  the  Empress  Elizabeth  of  Russia,  died, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Czar  Peter  III.,  who  was  one  of  his  most 
devoted  admirers.  The  first  thing  Peter  did  was  to  send  back 
all  the  Prussian  prisoners  of  war;  an  armistice  was  concluded, 
then  a  peace,  and  finally  an  alliance,  by  which  the  Russian  troops 
in  Pomerania  and  Silesia  were  transferred  from  the  Austrian  to 
the  Prussian  side.  Sweden  followed  the  example  of  Russia,  and 
made  peace,  and  the  campaign  of  1762  opened  with  renewed  hopes 
for  Prussia.  In  July,  1762,  Peter  III.  was  dethroned  and  mur- 
dered, whereupon  his  widow  and  successor,  Catherine  II.,  broke 
off  the  alliance  with  Frederick ;  but  she  finally  agreed  to  maintain 
peace,  and  Frederick  made  use  of  the  presence  of  the  Russian 
troops  who  wer^  now  in  his  camp  to  win  a  decided  victory  over 
Daun,  on  July  21. 

Austria  was  discouraged  by  this  new  turn  of  affairs ;  the  war 
was  conducted  with  less  energy  on  the  part  of  her  generals,  while 
the  Prussians  were  everywhere  animated  with  a  fresh  spirit.  After 
a  siege  of  several  months  Frederick  took  the  fortress  of  Schweid- 
nitz  on  October  9;  on  the  29th  of  the  same  month  Prince  Henry 
defeated  the  Austrians  at  Freiberg,  in  Saxony,  and  on  November 
I  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  drove  the  French  out  of  Cassel.  After 
this  Frederick  marched  upon  Dresden,  while  small  detachments 
were  sent  into  Bohemia  and  Franconia,  where  they  levied  contribu- 
tions on  the  cities  and  villages  and  kept  the  country  in  a  state  of 
terror. 

In  the  meantime  negotiations  for  peace  had  been  carried  on 
between  England  and  France.  The  preliminaries  were  settled  at 
Fontainebleau  on  November  3,  and,  although  the  ministry  of 
George  HI.  would  have  willingly  seen  Prussia  destroyed,  Fred- 
erick's popularity  was  so  great  in  England  that  the  government  was 
forced  to  stipulate  that  the  French  troops  should  be  withdrawn 
from  Germany.  The  "  German  Empire,"  represented  by  its  su- 
perannuated diet  at  Ratisbon,  became  alarmed  at  its  position  and 
concluded  an  armistice  with  Prussia;  so  that,  before  the  year 
closed,  Austria  was  left  alone  to  carry  on  the  war.  Maria  Theresa's 
personal  hatred  of  Frederick,  which  had  been  the  motive  power  in 
the  combination  against  him,  had  not  been  gratified  by  his  ruin. 
She  could  only  purchase  peace  with  him,  after  all  his  losses  and 
dangers,  by  giving  up  Silesia  forever.    It  was  a  bitter  pill  for  her 


S44  GERMANY 

1763-1764 

to  swallow,  but  there  was  no  alternative;  she  consented,  with 
rage  and  humiliation  in  her  heart.  On  February  15,  1763,  peace 
was  signed  at  Hubertsburg,  a  little  hunting-castle  near  Leipzig, 
and  the  Seven  Year's  War  was  over. 

Frederick  was  now  called  "  the  Great "  throughout  Europe, 
and  Prussia  was  henceforth  ranked  among  the  "  Five  Great 
Powers,"  the  others  being  England,  France,  Austria,  and  Russia. 
His  first  duty,  as  after  the  Second  Silesian  War,  was  to  raise  the 
kingdom  from  its  weak  and  wasted  condition.  He  distributed 
among  the  farmers  the  supplies  of  grain  which  had  been  hoarded 
up  for  the  army,  gave  them  as  many  artillery  and  cavalry  horses 
as  could  be  spared,  practiced  the  most  rigid  economy  in  the  ex- 
penses of  the  government,  and  bestowed  all  that  could  be  saved 
upon  the  regions  which  had  most  suffered.  The  nobles  derived 
the  greatest  advantage  from  this  support,  for  he  considered  them 
the  main  pillar  of  his  state,  and  took  all  his  officers  from  their 
ranks.  In  order  to  be  prepared  for  any  new  emergency,  he  kept 
up  his  army,  and  finally  doubled  it,  at  a  great  cost ;  but  as  he  used 
only  one-sixth  of  his  own  income  and  gave  the  rest  toward  sup- 
porting this  burden,  the  people,  although  often  oppressed  by  his 
system  of  taxation,  did  not  openly  complain. 

Frederick  continued  to  be  sole  and  arbitrary  ruler.  He  was 
unwilling  to  grant  any  participation  in  the  government  to  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  the  people,  but  demanded  that  everything  should 
be  trusted  to  his  own  "  sense  of  duty."  Since  the  people  did 
honor  and  trust  him, — since  every  day  illustrated  his  desire  to  be 
just  toward  all,  and  his  own  personal  devotion  to  the  interests  of 
the  kingdom,  his  policy  was  accepted.  He  never  reflected  that  the 
spirit  of  complete  submission  which  he  was  inculcating  weak- 
ened the  spirit  of  the  people,  and  might  prove  to  be  the  ruin  of 
Prussia  if  the  royal  power  should  fall  into  base  or  ignorant  hands. 
In  fact,  the  material  development  of  the  country  was  seriously 
hindered  by  his  admiration  of  everything  French.  He  introduced 
a  form  of  taxation  borrowed  from  France,  appointed  French  offi- 
cials, who  oppressed  the  people,  granted  monopolies  to  manufac- 
turers, prohibited  the  exportation  of  raw  material,  and  in  other 
ways  damaged  the  interests  of  Prussia  by  trying  to  force  a  rapid 
growth.  Frederick  the  Great,  like  all  his  contemporaries,  was  a 
thorough  believer  in  the  mercantile  system,  in  the  value  of  high 
protective  tariffs,  and  in  other  economic  theories,  whose  falsity 


FREDERICK     THE     GREAT  845 

1764-1786 

was  not  clearly  shown  until  Adam  Smith  published  his  "  Wealth 
of  Nations,"  in  1776. 

One  other  event,  of  a  peaceful  yet  none  the  less  of  a  violent 
character,  marks  Frederick's  reign.  Within  a  year  after  the  signing 
of  the  Peace  of  Hubertsburg  Augustus  III.  of  Poland  died,  and 
Catherine  of  Russia  persuaded  the  Polish  nobles  to  elect  Prince 
Poniatowsky,  her  favorite,  as  his  successor.  She  also  made  a 
treaty  with  Frederick  the  Great  in  which  they  guaranteed  each 
other's  possessions  and  agreed  to  pursue  a  common  policy  toward 
Poland,  especially  to  keep  Poland  weak  and  to  prevent  the  Poles 
from  carrying  out  any  of  the  much  needed  reforms  in  Poland. 
They  also  induced  Poniatowsky  to  grant  equal  rights  to  the  Prot- 
estant sects.  This  brought  on  a  civil  war  in  Poland,  as  the  Catho- 
lics were  in  a  majority.  A  long  series  of  diplomatic  negotiations 
followed,  in  which  Prussia,  Austria,  and  indirectly  France,  were 
involved.  Finally,  on  August  5,  1772,  Frederick  the  Great, 
Catherine  II.,  and  Maria  Theresa  (the  latter  most  unwillingly) 
united  in  taking  possession  of  about  one-third  of  the  king- 
dom of  Poland,  containing  ioo,ocx)  square  miles  and  4,500,000 
inhabitants,  and  dividing  it  among  themselves.  Prussia  received 
the  territory  between  Pomerania  and  the  former  duchy  of  Prussia, 
except  only  the  cities  of  Dantzig  and  Thorn,  with  about  700,000 
inhabitants.  This  united  together  the  eastern  and  central  pos- 
sessions of  Frederick  the  Great.  One  could  now  go  from  Berlin  to 
Konigsberg  without  leaving  the  dominions  of  the  King  of  Prussia. 
This  was  also  the  region  lost  to  Germany  in  1466,  when  the  in- 
capable Emperor  Frederick  III.  failed  to  assist  the  German  Order. 
Its  population  was  still  mostly  German,  and  consequently  scarcely 
felt  the  annexation  as  a  wrong;  yet  this  does  not  change  the 
character  of  the  act. 

The  last  years  of  Frederick  the  Great  were  peaceful.  He 
lived  to  see  the  American  colonies  independent  of  England,  and 
was  one  of  the  first  European  rulers  to  make  a  commercial  treaty 
with  the  new  republic  in  the  West.^  Frederick  outlived  Voltaire 
and  Maria  Theresa  and  preserved  to  the  last  his  habits  of  industry 
and  constant  supervision  of  all  affairs.     Like  his  father,  he  was 

1  The  story  that  Frederick  had  such  a  great  interest  in  George  Washington 
that  he  sent  him  a  sword  upon  which  was  inscribed,  "  From  the  oldest  general 
in  the  world  to  the  greatest,"  is  a  pure  myth  now  completely  exploded.  See 
Moncure  D.  Conway  in  The  Century  Magazine,  xiv.,  945. 


346  GERMANY 

1786 

fond  of  walking  or  riding  through  the  parks  and  streets  of  Berlin 
and  Potsdam,  talking  familiarly  with  the  people  and  now  and  then 
using  his  cane  upon  an  idler.  His  court  was  Spartan  in  its  sim- 
plicity, and  nothing  prevented  the  people  from  coming  personally 
to  him  with  their  complaints.  On  one  occasion,  in  the  streets  of 
Potsdam,  he  met  a  company  of  schoolboys,  and  roughly  addressed 
them  with :  "  Boys,  what  are  you  doing  here  ?  Be  off  to  your 
school ! "  One  of  the  boldest  answered :  "  Oh,  you  are  king,  are 
you,  and  don't  know  that  there  is  no  school  to-day ! "  Frederick 
laughed  heartily,  dropped  his  uplifted  cane,  and  gave  the  urchins 
a  piece  of  money  that  they  might  better  enjoy  their  holiday.  The 
windmill  at  Potsdam,  which  stood  on  some  ground  he  wanted  for 
his  park,  but  could  not  get  because  the  miller  would  not  sell  and 
defied  him  to  take  it  arbitrarily,  stands  to  this  day  as  a  token  of  his 
respect  for  the  rights  of  the  poor  man. 

When  Frederick  died,  on  August  17,  1786,  at  the  age 
of  seventy-four,  he  left  a  kingdom  of  6,000,000  inhabitants, 
an  army  of  more  than  200,000  men,  and  a  sum  of  72,000,000 
thalers  in  the  treasury.  But,  what  was  of  far  more  consequence 
to  Germany,  he  left  behind  him  an  example  of  patriotism,  order, 
economy,  and  personal  duty  which  was  already  followed  by  other 
German  princes,  and  an  example  of  resistance  to  foreign  inter- 
ference which  restored  the  pride  and  revived  the  hopes  of  the  Ger- 
man people. 


Chapter   XXXIII 

MARIA  THERESA  AND  JOSEPH   II.     1740-1790 

IN  the  Empress  Maria  Theresa,  Frederick  the  Great  had  an 
enemy  whom  he  was  bound  to  respect.  Since  the  death  of 
Maximilian  II.,  in  1576,  Austria  had  had  no  male  ruler  so  pru- 
dent, just,  and  energetic  as  this  woman.  One  of  her  first  acts 
was  to  imitate  the  military  organization  of  Prussia.  Then  she 
endeavored  to  restore  the  finances  of  the  country,  which  had  been 
sadly  shattered  by  the  luxury  of  her  predecessors.  Her  position 
during  the  two  Silesian  wars  and  the  Seven  Years'  War  was 
almost  the  same  as  that  of  her  opponent.  She  fought  to  recover 
territory  part  of  which  had  been  ceded  to  Austria  and  part  of 
which  she  had  held  by  virtue  of  unsettled  claims.  The  only  dif- 
ference was  that  the  very  existence  of  Austria  did  not  depend  on 
the  result,  as  was  the  case  with  Prussia. 

Maria  Theresa,  like  all  the  Hapsburgs  after  Ferdinand  I.,  had 
grown  up  under  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits.  She  effected  a  complete 
reorganization  of  the  government,  establishing  special  departments 
of  justice,  industry,  and  commerce.  She  sought  to  develop  the  re- 
sources of  the  country,  abolished  torture,  introduced  a  new  criminal 
code — in  short,  she  neglected  scarcely  any  important  interests  of  the 
people,  except  their  education  and  their  religious  freedom.  Never- 
theless, she  was  always  jealous  of  the  claims  of  Rome,  and  pre- 
vented, as  far  as  she  was  able,  the  immediate  dependence  of  the 
Catholic  clergy  upon  the  Pope. 

In  1765  her  husband,  Francis  I.  (of  Lorraine  and  Tuscany), 
suddenly  died,  and  was  succeeded,  as  German  emperor,  by  her 
eldest  son,  Joseph  II.,  who  was  then  twenty-four  years  of  age. 
He  was  an  earnest,  noble-hearted,  aspiring  man,  who  had  already 
taken  his  mother's  enemy,  Frederick  the  Great,  as  his  model  for 
a  ruler.  Maria  Theresa,  therefore,  kept  the  government  of  the 
Austrian  dominions  in  her  own  hands,  and  the  title  of  "  emperor  ** 
was  not  much  more  than  an  empty  dignity  while  she  lived.  In 
August,  1769,  Joseph  had  an  interview  with  Frederick  at  Neisse, 

34T 


6i8  GERMANY 

1769-1780 

in  Silesia,  and  told  him  outright  that  Austria  had  given  up  all 
hopes  of  ever  recovering  Silesia.  Frederick  returned  the  visit,  at 
Neustadt,  in  Moravia,  the  following  year.  At  these  meetings  the 
admiration  of  each  for  the  other  was  much  increased;  perhaps 
also  they  discussed  the  proposed  partition  of  Poland,  and  Joseph 
showed  that  he  was  not  averse  to  the  project.  Nevertheless,  after 
the  treaty  had  been  formally  drawn  up  and  laid  before  Maria 
Theresa  for  her  signature,  she  added  these  words :  "  Long  after 
I  am  dead  the  effects  of  this  violation  of  all  which  has  hitherto  been 
considered  right  and  holy  will  be  made  manifest."  Joseph,  with 
all  his  liberal  ideas,  had  no  such  scruples  of  conscience.  He  was 
easily  controlled  by  Frederick  the  Great,  who,  notwithstanding, 
never  entirely  trusted  him. 

In  1777  a  new  trouble  arose  which  for  two  years  held  Ger- 
many on  the  brink  of  internal  war.  The  Elector  Max  Joseph  of 
Bavaria,  the  last  of  the  House  of  Wittelsbach  in  a  direct  line,  died 
without  leaving  brother  or  son,  and  the  next  heir  was  the  Elector 
Charles  Theodore  of  the  Palatinate.  The  latter  was  persuaded  by 
Joseph  n.  to  give  up  about  half  of  Bavaria  to  Austria,  and  Austrian 
troops  immediately  took  possession  of  the  territory.  This  pro- 
ceeding created  great  alarm  among  the  German  princes,  who  looked 
upon  it  as  the  beginning  of  an  attempt  to  extend  the  Austrian  sway 
over  all  the  other  states.  Another  heir  to  Bavaria,  Duke  Charles 
of  Zweibriicken  (a  little  principality  on  the  French  frontier),  was 
brought  forward  and  presented  by  Frederick  the  Great,  who,  in 
order  to  support  him,  sent  two  armies  into  the  field.  Saxony  and 
some  of  the  smaller  states  took  the  same  side ;  even  Maria  Theresa 
desired  peace,  but  Joseph  H.  persisted  in  his  plans  until  both  France 
and  Russia  intervened.  The  matter  was  finally  settled  in  May, 
1779,  by  giving  Bavaria  to  the  Elector  Charles  Theodore,  and  annex- 
ing to  Austria  a  strip  of  territory  along  the  River  Inn  containing 
about  900  square  miles  and  139,000  inhabitants. 

Maria  Theresa  had  long  been  ill  of  an  incurable  dropsy,  and 
on  November  29,  1780,  she  died,  in  the  sixty-fourth  year  of  her 
age.  A  few  days  before  her  death  she  had  herself  lowered  by 
ropes  and  pulleys  into  the  vault  where  the  coffin  of  Francis  I. 
reposed.  On  being  drawn  up  again,  one  of  the  rof>es  parted,  where- 
upon she  exclaimed :  "  He  wishes  to  keep  me  with  him,  and  I  shall 
soon  come ! "  She  wrote  in  her  prayer-book  that  in  regard  to 
matters  of  justice,  the  church,  the  education  of  her  children,  and 


MARIA    THERESA    AND     JOSEPH       34.9 

1780 

her  obligations  toward  the  different  orders  of  her  people,  she 
found  little  cause  for  self-reproach ;  but  that  she  had  been  a  sinner 
in  making  war  from  motives  of  pride,  envy,  and  anger,  and  in 
her  speech  had  shown  too  little  charity  for  others.  She  left  Austria 
in  a  condition  of  order  and  material  prosperity  such  as  the  country 
had  not  known  for  centuries. 

When  Frederick  the  Great  heard  of  her  death  he  said  to  one 
of  his  ministers :  "  Maria  Theresa  is  dead ;  now  there  will  be  a 
new  order  of  things !  "  He  evidently  believed  that  Joseph  H.  would 
set  about  indulging  his  restless  ambition  for  conquest.  But  the 
latter  kept  the  peace,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  interests  of  Aus- 
tria, establishing,  indeed,  a  new  and  most  astonishing  order  of 
things,  but  of  a  totally  different  nature  from  what  Frederick  had 
expected.  Joseph  H.  was  filled  with  the  new  ideas  of  human  rights 
which  already  agitated  Europe.  The  short  but  illustrious  history 
of  the  Corsican  republic,  the  foundation  of  the  new  nation  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  the  works  of  French  authors  advocating 
democracy  in  society  and  politics,  were  beginning  to  exercise  a 
powerful  influence  in  Germany,  not  so  much  among  the  people 
as  among  the  highly  educated  classes.  Thus  at  the  very  moment 
when  Frederick  and  Maria  Theresa  were  exercising  the  most 
absolute  form  of  despotism,  and  the  smaller  rulers  were  doing 
their  best  to  imitate  them,  the  most  radical  theories  of  republi- 
canism were  beginning  to  be  openly  discussed,  and  the  great  revo- 
lution which  they  occasioned  was  only  a  few  years  off. 

Joseph  n.  was  scarcely  less  despotic  in  his  habits  of  govern- 
ment than  Frederick  the  Great,  and  he  used  his  power  to  force 
new  liberties  upon  a  people  who  were  not  intelligent  enough  to 
understand  them.  He  stands  almost  alone  among  monarchs  as 
an  example  of  a  revolutionist  upon  the  throne,  not  only  granting 
far  more  than  was  ever  demanded  of  his  predecessors,  but  com- 
pelling his  people  to  accept  rights  which  they  hardly  knew  how 
to  use.  He  determined  to  transform  Austria,  by  a  few  bold 
measures,  into  a  state  which  should  embody  all  the  progressive 
ideas  of  the  day,  and  be  a  model  for  the  world.  The  plan  was 
high  and  noble,  but  he  failed  because  he  did  not  perceive  that  the 
condition  of  a  people  cannot  be  so  totally  changed  without  a  wise 
and  gradual  preparation  for  it. 

He  began  by  reforming  the  entire  civil  service  of  Austria; 
but,  as  he  took  the  reform  into  his  own  hands  and  had  little  prac- 


850  GERMANY 

1780-1790 

tical  knowledgfe  of  the  position  and  duties  of  the  officials,  many  of 
the  changes  operated  injuriously.  In  regard  to  taxation,  industry, 
and  commerce  he  followed  the  theories  of  French  writers,  which, 
in  many  respects,  did  not  apply  to  the  state  of  things  in  Austria. 
He  abolished  the  penalty  of  death,  put  an  end  to  serfdom  among  the 
peasantry,  cut  down  the  privileges  of  the  nobles,  and  tried,  for  a 
short  time,  the  experiment  of  a  free  press.  His  boldest  measure 
was  in  regard  to  the  church,  which  he  endeavored  to  make  wholly 
independent  of  Rome.  He  openly  declared  that  the  priests  were 
"  the  most  dangerous  and  most  useless  class  in  every  country." 
He  suppressed  seven  hundred  monasteries  and  turned  them  into 
schools  or  asylums,  granted  the  Protestants  freedom  of  worship 
and  all  rights  enjoyed  by  Catholics,  and  continued  his  work  in  so 
sweeping  a  manner  that  the  Pope,  Pius  VI.,  hastened  to  Vienna 
in  1782,  in  the  greatest  alarm,  hoping  to  restore  the  influence  of 
the  church.  Joseph  II.  received  him  with  external  politeness,  but 
had  him  carefully  watched  and  allowed  no  one  to  visit  him  without 
his  own  express  permission.  After  a  stay  of  four  weeks,  during 
which  he  did  not  obtain  a  single  concession  of  any  importance, 
the  Pope  returned  to  Rome. 

Not  content  with  what  he  had  accomplished,  Joseph  now  went 
further.  He  g^ve  equal  rights  to  Jews  and  members  of  the  Greek 
Church,  ordered  German  hymns  to  be  sung  in  the  Catholic  churches 
and  the  German  Bible  to  be  read,  and  prohibited  pilgrimages  and 
religious  processions.  These  measures  gave  the  priesthood  the 
means  of  alarming  the  ignorant  people,  who  were  easily  persuaded 
that  the  emperor  intended  to  abolish  the  Christian  religion.  They 
became  suspicious  and  hostile  toward  the  one  man  who  was  defying 
the  church  and  the  nobles  in  his  efforts  to  help  the  populace.  Only 
the  few  who  came  into  direct  contact  with  him  were  able  to  appreciate 
his  sincerity  and  goodness.  He  was  fond  of  going  about  alone, 
dressed  so  simply  that  few  recognized  him,  and  almost  as  many 
stories  of  his  intercourse  with  the  lower  classes  are  told  of  him  in 
Austria  as  of  Frederick  the  Great  in  Prussia.  On  one  occasion  he  at- 
tended a  poor  sick  woman  whose  daughter  took  him  for  a  physician ; 
on  another  he  took  the  plow  from  the  hands  of  a  peasant  and 
plowed  a  few  furrows  around  the  field.  Though  he  was  one  of  the 
most  enlightened  men  of  his  age,  and  sincerely  tried  to  benefit  his 
people,  his  reforms  were  too  radical,  and  usually  created  gjeat  oppo- 
sition among  the  very  classes  they  were  intended  to  benefit.    Fred- 


MARIA     THERESA    AND     JOSEPH       S51 

1780-1790 

erick  said  sarcastically  of  him  that  he  failed  in  almost  everything 
he  undertook  because  he  always  took  the  second  step  before  he  had 
taken  the  first.  If  his  reign  had  been  longer  the  Austrian  people 
would  have  learned  to  trust  him,  and  many  of  his  reforms  might 
have  become  permanent ;  he  was  better  understood  and  loved  after 
his  death  than  during  his  life. 

One  circumstance  must  be  mentioned  in  explanation  of  the 
sudden  and  sweeping  character  of  Joseph  H.'s  measures  toward 
the  church.  The  Jesuits,  by  their  intrigues  and  the  demoralizing 
influence  which  they  exercised,  had  made  themselves  hated  in  all 
Catholic  countries,  and  were  tolerated  only  in  Bavaria  and  Austria. 
France,  Spain,  Naples,  and  Portugal,  one  after  the  other,  banished 
the  order,  and  Pope  Clement  XIV.  was  finally  induced,  in  1773, 
to  dissolve  its  connection  with  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  Jesuits 
were  then  compelled  to  leave  Austria,  and  for  a  time  they  found 
refuge  only  in  Russia  and  Prussia,  where  they  were  employed  by 
the  governments  as  teachers.  Their  expulsion  was  the  sign  of  a 
new  life  for  the  schools  and  universities,  and  Joseph  II.  evidently 
supposed  that  the  Church  of  Rome  itself  had  made  a  step  in  ad- 
vance. The  Archbishop  of  Mayence  and  the  Bishop  of  Treves 
were  noted  liberals;  the  latter  even  favored  a  reformation  in  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  the  emperor  had  reason  to  believe  that  he 
would  receive  at  least  a  moral  support  throughout  Germany.  He 
neither  perceived  the  thorough  demoralization  which  two  centuries 
of  Jesuit  rule  had  produced  in  Austria  nor  the  settled  determina- 
tion of  the  Papal  power  to  restore  the  order  as  soon  as  circum- 
stances would  permit. 

Joseph  II.'s  last  years  were  disastrous  to  all  his  plans.  In 
Flanders,  which  was  still  a  dependency  of  Austria,  the  priests 
incited  the  people  to  revolt;  in  Hungary  the  nobles  were  bitterly 
hostile  to  him  on  account  of  the  abolition  of  serfdom;  and  an 
alliance  with  Catherine  II.  of  Russia  against  Turkey,  into  which 
he  entered  in  1788 — chiefly,  it  seems,  in  the  hope  of  achieving 
military  renown — was  in  every  way  unfortunate.  At  the  head  of 
an  army  of  200,000  men  he  marched  against  Belgrade,  but  was 
repelled  by  the  Turks,  and  finally  returned  to  Vienna  with  the  seeds 
of  a  fatal  fever  in  his  frame.  Russia  made  peace  with  Turkey  be- 
fore the  fortunes  of  war  could  be  retrieved;  Flanders  declared 
itself  independent  of  Austria,  and  a  revolution  in  Hungary  was 
only  prevented  by  his  taking  back  most  of  the  decrees  which  had 


852  GERMANY 

1790 

been  issued  for  the  emancipation  of  the  people.  Disappointed  and 
hopeless,  Joseph  II.  succumbed  to  the  fever  which  hung  upon  him. 
He  died  on  February  20,  1790,  only  forty-nine  years  of  age. 
He  ordered  these  words  to  be  engraved  upon  his  tombstone: 
"  Here  lies  a  prince  whose  intentions  were  pure,  but  who  had  the 
misfortune  to  see  all  his  plans  shattered ! "  History  has  done 
justice  to  his  character,  and  the  people  whom  he  tried  to  help  learned 
to  appreciate  his  efforts  when  it  was  too  late. 

The  condition  of  Germany,  from  the  end  of  the  Seven  Years* 
War  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  shows  a  remarkable 
progress,  when  we  contrast  it  with  the  first  half  of  the  century. 
The  stem,  heroic  character  of  Frederick  the  Great,  the  strong, 
humane  aspirations  of  Joseph  II.,  and  the  rapid  gjowth  of  demo- 
cratic ideas  all  over  the  world  affected  at  last  many  of  the  smaller 
German  states.  Their  imitation  of  the  pomp  and  state  of  Louis 
XIV.,  which  they  had  practiced  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  came 
to  an  end.  The  princes  were  now  possessed  with  the  idea  of  "  an 
enlightened  despotism  " — that  is,  while  retaining  their  absolute 
power,  they  endeavored  to  exercise  it  for  the  good  of  the  people. 
There  were  some  dark  exceptions  to  this  general  change  for  the 
better.  The  rulers  of  Hesse-Cassel  and  Wiirtemberg,  for  example, 
sold  whole  regiments  of  their  subjects  to  England,  to  be  used 
against  the  American  colonies  in  the  War  of  Independence.  Al- 
though many  of  these  soldiers  remained  in  the  United  States,  and 
encouraged,  by  their  satisfaction  with  their  new  homes,  the  later 
German  emigration  to  America,  the  princes  who  sold  them  covered 
their  own  memories  with  infamy,  and  deservedly  so. 

There  was  a  remarkable  movement  about  the  same  time  among 
the  Catholic  archbishops,  who  were  also  temporal  rulers,  in  Ger- 
many. The  dominions  of  these  priestly  princes,  especially  along 
the  Rhine,  had  been  wretchedly  governed.  There  were  about  1000 
inhabitants,  50  of  whom  were  priests  and  260  beggars,  to  every 
twenty-two  square  miles!  But  by  a  singular  coincidence  the  chief 
Catholic  archbishops  were  at  this  time  men  of  intelligence  and 
humane  aspirations,  who  did  their  best  to  remedy  the  misrule  of 
their  predecessors.  In  the  year  1786  the  archbishops  of  Mayence, 
Treves,  Cologne,  and  Salzburg,  came  together  at  Ems  and  agreed 
upon  a  plan  for  founding  a  national  German-Catholic  Qiurch  inde- 
pendent of  Rome,  The  priests,  in  their  ignorance  and  bigotry, 
opposed  the  movement,  and  even  Joseph  II.,  who  had  planned 


MARIA    THERESA    AND     JOSEPH        353 

1790 

the  very  same  thing  for  Austria,  most  inconsistently  refused  to 
favor  it.     The  plan,  therefore,  failed. 

It  must  be  admitted,  as  an  apology  for  the  theory  of  "  an  en- 
lightened despotism,"  that  there  was  no  representative  govern- 
ment in  Europe  at  the  time  where  there  was  greater  justice  and 
order  than  in  Prussia  or  in  Austria  under  Joseph  II.  The  German 
Empire  had  become  a  mere  mockery;  its  perpetual  diet  at  Ratisbon 
was  little  more  than  a  farce.  Poland,  Holland,  and  Sweden,  where 
there  were  legislative  assemblies,  were  in  a  most  unfortunate  con- 
dition. The  Swiss  republic  was  far  from  being  republican,  and 
even  England,  under  George  III.,  did  not  present  a  fortunate  model 
of  parliamentary  government.  The  United  States  of  America  were 
too  far  off  and  too  little  known  to  exercise  much  influence.  Some 
of  the  smaller  German  states,  which  were  despotisms  in  the  hands 
of  wise  and  humane  rulers,  thus  played  a  most  beneficent  part  in 
protecting,  instructing,  and  elevating  the  people. 

Baden,  Brunswick,  Anhalt-Dessau,  Holstein,  Saxe-Gotha,  and 
especially  Saxe-Weimar,  became  cradles  of  science  and  literature. 
Charles  Augustus,  of  the  last-named  state,  called  Herder,  Wieland, 
Goethe,  Schiller,  and  other  illustrious  authors  to  his  court,  and 
created  such  a  distinguished  circle  in  letters  and  the  arts  that  Weimar 
was  named  "  the  German  Athens."  The  works  of  these  great  men, 
who  had  been  preceded  by  Lessing  and  Klopstock,  gave  an  im- 
mense impetus  to  the  intellectual  development  of  Germany.  It 
was  the  first  great  advance  made  by  the  people  since,  the  days  of 
Luther,  and  its  effect  extended  gradually  to  the  courts  of  less  in- 
telligent and  humane  princes.  Frederick  Augustus  of  Saxony 
refrained  from  imitating  his  dissolute  and  tyrannical  ancestors, 
and  his  land  began  to  recover  from  its  long  sufferings.  As  for 
the  scores  of  petty  states  which  contained — as  was  ironically  said 
— "  twelve  subjects  and  one  Jew,"  and  were  not  much  larger  than 
an  average  Illinois  farm,  they  were  mostly  despotic  and  ridiculous ; 
but  they  were  too  weak  to  impede  the  general  march  of  progress. 
Among  the  greater  states,  only  Bavaria  remained  in  the  back- 
ground. The  elector  held  fast  to  all  his  religious  prejudices  and 
kept  his  people  in  ignorance. 


Chapter  XXXIV 

THE   END  OF  THE   GERMAN   EMPIRE.     1790-1806 

THE  mantles  of  both  Frederick  the  Great  and  Joseph  H. 
fell  upon  incompetent  successors  at  a  time  when  all 
Europe  was  agfitated  by  the  beginning  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  when,  therefore,  the  greatest  political  wisdom  was 
required  of  the  rulers  of  Germany.  It  was  a  crisis  the  like  of 
which  never  before  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  proba- 
bly never  will  occur  again;  for,  at  the  time  when  it  came,  the 
people  enjoyed  fewer  rights  than  they  had  possessed  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  the  monarchs  exercised  more  power  than  they 
had  claimed  for  at  least  fifteen  hundred  years  before,  while  general 
intelligence  and  the  knowledge  of  human  rights  were  increasing 
everywhere.  The  fabrics  of  society  and  government  were  ages 
behind  the  demands  of  the  time;  a  change  was  inevitable,  and 
because  no  preparation  had  been  made,  it  came  with  violence. 

Frederick  the  Great  was  succeeded  by  his  nephew,  Frederick 
William  II.,  whom,  with  unaccountable  neglect,  he  had  not  in- 
structed in  the  duties  of  government.  The  latter,  nevertheless, 
began  with  changes  which  gave  him  a  great  popularity.  He  abol- 
ished the  French  system  of  collecting  duties,  the  monopolies  which 
were  burdensome  to  the  people,  and  lightened  the  weight  of  their 
taxes.  But,  by  unnecessary  interference  in  the  affairs  of  Holland 
(because  his  sister  was  the  wife  of  William  V.  of  Orange),  he 
spent  all  the  surplus  which  Frederick  had  left  in  the  Prussian 
treasury;  he  was  weak,  dissolute,  and  fickle  in  his  character; 
he  introduced  the  most  rigid  measures  in  regard  to  the  press  and 
religious  worship,  and  soon  taught  the  people  the  difference  be- 
tween a  bigoted  and  narrow-minded  and  an  intelligent  and  con- 
scientious king. 

Joseph  II.  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  Leopold  II.,  who 
for  twenty-five  years  had  been  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  where  he 
had  governed  with  great  mildness  and  prudence.  His  policy 
had  been  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  Joseph  II.,  but  charactcr- 

SM 


END    OF     THE     EMPIRE  355 

1790-1792 

ized  by  greater  caution  and  moderation.  When  he  took  the  crown 
of  Austria,  and  immediately  afterward  that  of  the  German  Em- 
pire, he  materially  changed  his  plan  of  government.  He  was  not 
rigidly  oppressive,  but  he  checked  the  evidence  of  a  freer  develop- 
ment among  the  people  which  Joseph  II.  had  fostered.  He  lim- 
ited at  once  the  pretensions  of  Austria,  cultivated  friendly  rela- 
tions with  Prussia,  which  was  then  inclined  to  support  the  Austrian 
Netherlands  in  their  revolt,  and  took  steps  to  conclude  peace  with 
Turkey.  He  succeeded,  also,  in  reconciling  the  Hungarians  to  the 
Hapsburg  rule,  and  might  possibly  have  given  a  fortunate  turn 
to  the  destinies  of  Austria  if  he  had  lived  long  enough.  But  he 
died  on  March  i,  1792,  after  a  reign  of  exactly  two  years,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Francis  H.,  who  was  elected  Emperor  of  Grer- 
many  on  July  5,  in  Frankfort. 

By  this  time  the  great  changes  which  had  taken  place  in  France 
began  to  agitate  all  Europe.  The  French  National  Assembly  very 
soon  disregarded  the  provisions  of  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  of 
1648,  which  had  ceded  to  France  only  the  possessions  of  Austria  in 
Alsatia,  allowing  various  towns  and  districts  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Upper  Rhine  to  be  held  by  German  princes.  The  entire 
authority  over  these  scattered  possessions  was  now  claimed  by 
France,  and  neither  Prussia,  under  Frederick  William  H.,  nor 
Austria  under  Leopold  H.,  resisted  the  act  otherwise  than  by  a 
protest  which  had  no  effect.  Although  the  French  queen,  Marie 
Antoinette,  was  Leopold  H.'s  sister,  his  policy  was  to  preserve  peace 
with  the  revolutionary  party  which  controlled  France.  Frederick 
William's  minister,  Hertzberg,  pursued  the  same  policy,  but  so 
much  against  the  will  of  the  king,  who  was  determined  to  defend 
the  cause  of  absolute  monarchy  by  trying  to  rescue  Louis  XVI. 
from  his  increasing  dangers,  that  before  the  close  of  1791  Hertz- 
berg was  dismissed  from  office.  Then  Frederick  William  endeav- 
ored to  create  a  "  holy  alliance  "  of  Prussia,  Austria,  Russia,  and 
Sweden  against  France,  but  only  succeeded  far  enough  to  provoke 
a  bitter  feeling  of  hostility  to  Germany  in  the  French  National 
Assembly. 

The  nobles  who  had  been  driven  out  of  France  by  the  Revo- 
lution were  welcomed  by  the  archbishops  of  Mayence  and  Treves, 
and  the  rulers  of  smaller  states  along  the  Rhine,  who  allowed  them 
to  plot  a  counter-revolution.  An  angry  diplomatic  intercourse  be- 
tween France  and  Austria  followed,  and  in  April,  1792,  the  former 


856  GERMANY 

1792-1793 

country  declared  war  against  "  the  King  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary," 
as  Francis  II.  was  styled  by  the  French  Assembly.  In  fact,  war 
was  inevitable;  for  the  monarchs  of  Europe  were  simply  waiting 
for  a  good  chance  to  intervene  and  crush  the  republican  movement 
in  France,  which,  on  its  side,  could  only  establish  itself  through 
military  successes.  Although  neither  party  was  prepared  for  the 
struggle,  the  energy  and  enthusiasm  of  the  new  men  who  governed 
France  gained  an  advantage,  at  the  start,  over  the  lumbering  slow- 
ness of  the  German  governments.  It  was  not  the  latter,  this  time, 
but  their  enemy  who  profited  by  the  example  of  Frederick  the 
Great. 

Prussia  and  Austria,  supported  by  some,  but  not  by  all,  of  the 
smaller  states,  raised  two  armies,  one  of  110,000  men  under  the 
Duke  of  Brunswick,  which  was  to  march  through  Belgium  to  Paris, 
while  the  other,  50,000  strong,  was  to  take  possession  of  Alsatia. 
The  movement  of  the  former  was  changed,  and  then  delayed  by 
differences  of  opinion  among  the  royal  and  ducal  commanders. 
It  started  from  Mayence  and  consumed  three  weeks  in  marching 
to  the  French  frontier,  only  ninety  miles  distant.  Longwy  and 
Verdun  were  taken  without  much  difficulty,  and  then  the  advance 
ceased.  The  French  under  Dumouriez  and  Kellermann  united  their 
forces,  held  the  Germans  in  check  at  Valmy,  on  September  20, 
1792,  and  then  compelled  them  to  retrace  their  steps  toward  the 
Rhine.  While  the  Prussians  were  retreating  through  storms  of 
rain,  their  ranks  thinned  by  disease,  Dumouriez  wheeled  upon 
Flanders,  met  the  Austrian  army  at  Jemappes,  and  gained  such 
a  decided  victory  that  by  the  end  of  the  year  all  Belgium,  and 
even  the  city  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French. 

At  the  same  time  another  French  army,  under  General  Custine, 
marched  to  the  Rhine,  took  Speyer,  Worms,  and  finally  Mayence, 
which  city  was  made  the  headquarters  of  a  republican  movement 
intended  to  influence  Germany.  These  successes  were  followed, 
on  January  21,  1793,  by  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.,  and  on 
October  16  of  Marie  Antoinette — acts  which  alarmed  every  reign- 
ing family  in  Europe  and  provoked  the  most  intense  enmity  toward 
the  French  Republic.  An  immediate  alliance — called  the  First  Co- 
alition— was  made  by  England,  Holland,  Prussia,  Austria,  "  the 
German  Empire,"  Sardinia,  Naples,  and  Spain,  against  France. 
Only  Catherine  II.  of  Russia  declined  to  join,  not  because  she  did 
not  favor  the  design  of  crushing  France,  but  because  she  would 


END     OF     THE     EMPIRE  867 

1793-1795 

thus  be  left  free  to  carry  out  her  plans  of  aggrandizement  at  the 
expense  of  Turkey  and  Poland. 

The  greater  part  of  the  year  1793  was  on  the  whole  favorable 
to  the  allied  powers.  An  Austrian  victory  at  Neerwinden,  on 
March  18,  compelled  the  French  to  evacuate  Belgium.  In  July 
the  Prussians  reconquered  Mayence  and  then  advanced  into  Al- 
satia.  A  combined  English  and  Spanish  fleet  took  possession  of 
Toulon.  But  there  was  no  unity  of  action  among  the  enemies  of 
France;  even  the  German  successes  were  soon  neutralized  by  the 
mutual  jealousy  and  mistrust  of  Prussia  and  Austria,  and  the  war 
became  more  and  more  unpopular.  Toward  the  close  of  the  year 
the  French  armies  were  again  victorious  in  Flanders  and  along  the 
Rhine.  Their  generals  had  discovered  that  the  rapid  movements 
and  the  rash,  impetuous  assaults  of  their  new  troops  were  very  effec- 
tual against  the  old,  deliberate,  scientific  tactics  of  the  Germans. 
Spain,  Holland,  and  Sardinia  proved  to  be  almost  useless  as  allies, 
and  the  strength  of  the  coalition  was  reduced  to  England,  Prussia, 
and  Austria. 

In  1794  a  fresh  attempt  was  made.  Prussia  furnished  50,000 
men,  who  were  paid  by  England,  and  were  hardly  less  mercenaries 
than  the  troops  sold  by  Hesse-Cassel  twenty  years  before.  In 
June  the  French  under  Jourdan  were  victorious  at  Fleurus,  and 
Austria  decided  to  give  up  Belgium.  The  Prussians  gained  some 
advantages  in  Alsatia,  but  showed  no  desire  to  carry  on  the  war 
as  the  hirelings  of  another  country.  Frederick  William  II.  and 
Francis  II.  were  equally  suspicious  of  each  other,  equally  weak  and 
vacillating,  divided  between  their  desire  of  overturning  the  French 
republic  on  the  one  side  and  securing  new  conquests  of  Polish 
territory  on  the  other.  Thus  the  war  was  prosecuted  in  the  most 
languid  and  inefficient  manner,  and  by  the  end  of  the  year  the 
French  were  masters  of  all  the  territory  west  of  the  Rhine  from 
Alsatia  to  the  sea.  During  the  following  winter  they  assisted  in 
overturning  the  former  government  of  Holland,  where  a  new 
"  Batavian  Republic "  was  established.  Frederick  William  II. 
thereupon  determined  to  withdraw  from  the  coalition,  and  make 
a  separate  peace  with  France.  His  minister,  Hardenberg,  con- 
cluded a  treaty  at  Basel,  on  April  5,  1795,  by  which  Cleves  and 
other  Prussian  territory  west  of  the  Lower  Rhine  were  relin- 
quished to  France,  and  all  of  Germany  north  of  a  line  of  de- 
marcation, drawn  from  the  River  Main  eastward  to  Silesia,  was 


S58  GERMANY 

1793-1795 

declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  neutrality  during  the  war  which  France 
still  continued  to  wage  with  Austria. 

One  cause  of  Prussia's  change  of  policy  seems  to  have  been 
her  fear  that  Russia  would  absorb  the  whole  of  Poland.  This 
was  probably  the  intention  of  Catherine  II.,  for  she  had  vigorously 
encouraged  the  war  between  Germany  and  France,  while  declining 
to  take  part  in  it.  The  Poles  themselves,  now  more  divided  than 
ever,  soon  furnished  her  with  a  pretext  for  interference.  They  had 
adopted  an  hereditary  instead  of  an  elective  monarchy,  together 
with  a  constitution  similar  to  that  of  France;  but  a  portion  of  the 
nobility  rose  in  arms  against  these  changes,  and  were  supported 
by  Russia.  Then  Frederick  William  II.  insisted  on  being  admitted 
as  a  partner  in  the  business  of  interference,  and  Catherine  II. 
reluctantly  consented.  In  January,  1793,  the  two  powers  agreed 
to  divide  a  large  portion  of  Polish  territory  between  them,  Austria 
taking  no  active  part  in  the  matter.  Prussia  received  the  cities 
of  Thorn  and  Dantzig,  the  provinces  of  Posen,  Gnesen,  and  Kalisch 
and  other  territory,  amounting  to  more  than  20,ocx)  square  miles, 
with  1,000,000  inhabitants.  The  only  resistance  made  to  the  en- 
trance of  the  Russian  army  into  Poland  was  headed  by  Kosciusko, 
one  of  the  heroes  of  the  American  War  of  Independence.  Although 
defeated  at  Dubienka,  where  he  fought  with  4000  men  against 
16,000,  the  hopes  of  the  Polish  patriots  centered  upon  him,  and 
when  they  rose  in  1794  to  prevent  the  approaching  destruction  of 
their  country,  they  made  him  dictator.  Russia  was  engaged  in 
a  war  with  Turkey,  and  had  not  troops  enough  to  quell  the  insur- 
rection, so  Prussia  was  called  upon  to  furnish  her  share.  In  June, 
1794,  Frederick  William  himself  marched  to  Warsaw,  where  a 
Russian  army  arrived  about  the  same  time.  The  city  was  besieged, 
but  not  attacked,  owing  to  quarrels  and  differences  of  opinion 
among  the  commanders.  At  the  end  of  three  months  the  king  got 
tired  and  went  back  to  Berlin;  several  insignificant  battles  were 
fought,  in  which  the  Poles  had  the  greater  advantage,  but  nothing 
decisive  happened  until  the  end  of  October,  when  the  Russian  Gen- 
eral Suvarov  arrived,  after  a  forced  march  from  the  seat  of  war  on 
the  Danube. 

He  first  defeated  Kosciusko,  who  was  taken  prisoner,  and  then 
marched  upon  Warsaw.  On  November  4  the  suburb  of  Praga 
was  taken  by  storm,  with  terrible  slaughter,  and  three  days  after- 
ward Warsaw  fell.     This  was  the  end  of  Poland  as  an  independ- 


END    OF    THE    EMPIRE  869 

1795-1796 

ent  nation.  Although  Austria  had  taken  no  part  in  the  war,  she 
now  negotiated  for  a  share  in  the  third  and  last  partition, 
which  had  been  decided  upon  by  Russia  and  Prussia,  even  before 
the  Polish  revolt  furnished  the  pretext  for  it.  Catherine  II.  favored 
the  Austrian  claims,  and  even  concluded  a  secret  agreement  with 
Francis  II.,  without  consulting  Prussia.  When  this  had  been  made 
known,  in  August,  1795,  Prussia  protested  violently  against  it,  but 
without  effect.  Russia  took  more  than  half  the  remaining  terri- 
tory, Austria  nearly  one-quarter,  and  Prussia  received  about  20,- 
000  square  miles  more,  including  the  city  of  Warsaw. 

After  the  Treaty  of  Basel,  which  secured  neutrality  to  the 
northern  half  of  Germany,  Catherine  II.,  victorious  over  Turkey 
and  having  nothing  more  to  do  in  Poland,  united  with  England 
and  Austria  against  France.  It  was  agreed  that  Russia  should 
send  both  an  army  and  a  fleet,  Austria  raise  200,000  men,  and  Eng- 
land contribute  $20,000,000,  annually  toward  the  expenses  of  the 
war.  During  the  summer  of  1795,  however,  little  was  done.  The 
French  still  held  everything  west  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  Austrians 
watched  them  from  the  opposite  bank.  The  strength  of  both  was 
nearly  equal.  Suddenly,  in  September,  the  French  crossed  the 
river,  took  Dusseldorf  and  Mannheim,  with  immense  quantities  of 
military  stores,  and  completely  laid  waste  the  country  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  these  two  cities,  treating  the  people  with  the  most  in- 
human barbarity.  Then  the  Austrians  rallied,  repulsed  the  French 
in  their  turn,  and  before  winter  recovered  possession  of  nearly  all 
the  western  bank. 

In  January,  1796,  an  armistice  was  declared.  Spain  and  Sar- 
dinia had  already  made  peace  with  France,  and  Austria  showed 
signs  of  becoming  weary  of  the  war.  The  French  Republic,  how- 
ever, found  itself  greatly  strengthened  by  its  military  successes. 
Its  minister  of  war,  Carnot,  and  its  ambitious  young  generals, 
Bonaparte,  Moreau,  and  Massena,  were  winning  fame  and  power 
by  the  continuance  of  hostilities,  and  the  system  of  making  the 
conquered  territory  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  war  (in  some  cases 
much  more)  was  a  great  advantage  to  the  French  national  treasury. 
Thus  the  war,  undertaken  by  the  coalition  for  the  destruction  of 
the  French  Republic,  had  only  strengthened  the  latter,  which  was 
in  the  best  condition  for  continuing  it  at  a  time  when  the  allies 
(except,  perhaps,  England)  were  discouraged  and  ready  for  peace. 

The  campaign  of  1796  was  most  disastrous  to  Austria.  France 


860  GERMANY 

1796 

had  an  army  under  Jourdan  on  the  Lower  Rhine,  another  under 
Moreau — who  had  replaced  General  Pichegru — on  the  Upper 
Rhine,  and  a  third  under  Bonaparte  in  Italy.  Bonaparte  led  his 
army  from  Nice  toward  Genoa,  along  the  shore  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Then  he  suddenly  marched  northward  across  the  Alps 
where  they  are  lower,  defeated  the  Sardinians  and  forced  them  to 
make  peace,  and  then  without  fear  for  his  rear  and  line  of  com- 
munication, was  ready  to  face  the  Austrians.  As  his  army  looked 
down  into  the  rich  valley  of  the  Po,  clothed  in  April  green,  Bona- 
parte addressed  his  soldiers :  "  Soldiers,  you  are  naked,  badly  fed. 
I  wish  to  lead  you  among  the  most  fertile  plains  of  the  world.  Rich 
provinces,  great  towns,  will  be  in  your  power;  there  you  will  find 
honor  and  glory  and  riches.  Soldiers  of  Italy,  can  you  be  found 
lacking  in  honor,  courage,  or  constancy  ?  "  He  promised  them  he 
would  give  them  Milan  in  four  weeks,  and  he  kept  his  word.  Plun- 
der and  victory  heightened  their  faith  in  his  splendid  military 
genius.  He  advanced  with  irresistible  energy,  passing  the  Po  and 
the  Adda  at  Lodi.  He  overthrew  the  venerable  Venetian  republic, 
and  formed  new  republican  states  out  of  the  old  Italian  duchies. 
The  Austrians  he  drove  everywhere  before  him.  By  the  end  of  the 
3'ear  1796  they  held  only  the  strong  fortress  of  Mantua. 

The  French  armies  on  the  Rhine  were  opposed  by  an  Austrian 
army  of  equal  strength,  commanded  by  the  Archduke  Charles,  a  gen- 
eral of  considerable  talent,  but  still  governed  by  the  military  ideas 
of  a  former  generation.  Instead  of  attacking,  he  waited  to  be  at- 
tacked ;  but  neither  Jourdan  nor  Moreau  allowed  him  to  wait  long. 
The  former  took  possession  of  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Lower  Rhine. 
When  the  archduke  marched  against  him  Moreau  crossed  into 
Baden  and  seized  the  passes  of  the  Black  Forest.  Then  the  arch- 
duke, having  compelled  Jourdan  to  fall  back,  met  the  latter  and  was 
defeated.  Jourdan  returned  a  second  time,  Moreau  advanced,  and 
all  Baden,  Wurtemberg,  Franconia,  and  the  greater  part  of  Bavaria 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  These  states  not  only  submitted 
without  resistance,  but  used  every  exertion  to  pay  enormous  con- 
tributions to  their  conquerors.  One-fourth  of  what  they  gave  would 
have  prevented  the  invasion,  and  changed  the  subsequent  fate  of 
Germany.  Frankfort  paid  ten  millions  of  florins,  Nuremberg  three, 
Bavaria  ten,  and  the  other  cities  and  principalities  in  proportion, 
besides  furnishing  enormous  quantities  of  supplies  to  the  French 
troops.    All  these  countries  purchased  the  neutrality  of  France  by 


END     OF    THE     EMPIRE  361 

1796-1798 

allowing  free  passage  to  the  latter,  and  agreeing  further  to  pay 
heavy  monthly  contributions  toward  the  expenses  of  the  war.  Even 
Saxony,  which  had  not  been  invaded,  joined  in  this  agreement. 

Toward  the  end  of  summer  the  archduke  twice  defeated  Jour- 
dan  and  forced  him  to  retreat  across  the  Rhine.  This  rendered  Mo- 
reau's  position  in  Bavaria  untenable.  Closely  followed  by  the  Aus- 
trians,  he  accomplished  without  loss  that  famous  retreat  through 
the  Black  Forest  which  is  considered  a  greater  achievement  than 
many  victories  in  the  annals  of  war.  Thus,  at  the  close  of  the 
year  1796,  all  Germany  east  of  the  Rhine,  plundered,  impoverished, 
and  demoralized,  was  again  free  from  the  French.  This  defeated 
Bonaparte's  plan,  which  had  been  to  advance  from  Italy  through 
the  Tyrol,  effect  a  junction  with  Moreau  in  Bavaria,  and  then 
march  upon  Vienna.  Nevertheless,  he  determined  to  carry  out 
his  portion  of  it,  regardless  of  the  fortunes  of  the  other  French 
armies,  and  of  the  contrary  orders  which  the  home  government 
sent  to  him.  On  February  2,  1797,  Mantua  surrendered;  the 
Archduke  Charles,  who  had  been  sent  against  him,  was  defeated, 
and  Bonaparte  followed  with  such  daring  and  vigor  that  by  the 
middle  of  April  he  had  reached  the  little  town  of  Leoben,  in  Styria, 
only  a  few  days'  march  from  Vienna.  Although  he  had  less  than 
50,000  men,  while  the  archduke  still  had  about  25,000,  and  the 
Austrians,  Styrians,  and  Tyrolese,  now  thoroughly  aroused,  de- 
manded weapons  and  leaders,  Francis  II.,  instead  of  encouraging 
their  patriotism  and  boldly  undertaking  a  movement  which  might 
have  cut  off  Bonaparte,  began  to  negotiate  for  peace.  Of  course 
the  conqueror  dictated  his  own  terms.  The  preliminaries  were 
settled  at  once,  an  armistice  followed,  and  on  October  17,  1797, 
peace  was  concluded  at  Campo  Formio. 

Austria  gave  Lombardy  and  Belgium  to  France,  to  both  of 
which  countries  she  had  a  tolerable  claim;  but  she  also  gave  all 
the  territory  west  of  the  Rhine,  which  she  had  no  right  to  do,  even 
under  the  constitution  of  the  superannuated  "  German  Empire." 
On  the  other  hand,  Bonaparte  gave  to  Austria  Dalmatia,  Istria, 
and  nearly  all  the  territory  of  the  Republic  of  Venice,  to  which  he 
had  not  the  shadow  of  a  right.  He  had  already  conquered  and 
suppressed  the  Republic  of  Genoa,  so  that  these  two  old  and  illus- 
trious states  vanished  from  the  map  of  Europe  only  two  years 
after  Poland. 

Nevertheless,  the  illusion  of  a  German  Empire  was  kept  up, 


362  GERMANY 

1798-1799 

SO  far  as  the  form  was  concerned.  A  congress  of  all  the  states 
was  called  to  meet  at  Rastatt,  in  Baden,  and  confirm  the  Treaty  of 
Campo  Formio.  But  France  had  become  arrogant  through  her 
astonishing  success,  and  in  May,  1798,  her  ambassadors  suddenly 
demanded  a  number  of  new  concessions,  including  the  annexation 
of  points  east  of  the  Rhine,  the  leveling  of  the  fortress  of  Ehren- 
breitstein,  opposite  Coblentz,  and  the  possession  of  the  islands  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river.  At  this  time  Bonaparte  was  absent  on 
his  expedition  to  Egypt,  and  only  England,  chiefly  by  means  of 
her  navy,  was  carrying  on  the  war  with  France.  The  new  demands 
made  at  the  Congress  of  Rastatt  not  only  prolonged  the  negotia- 
tions, but  provoked  throughout  Europe  the  idea  of  another  coali- 
tion against  the  French  Republic.  The  year  1798,  however,  came 
to  an  end  without  any  further  action,  except  such  as  was  secretly 
plotted  at  various  courts. 

Early  in  1799  the  Second  Coalition  was  formed  between  Eng- 
land, Russia  (where  Paul  I.  had  succeeded  Catherine  II.  in  1796), 
Austria,  Naples,  and  Turkey.  Spain  and  Prussia  still  adhered  to 
the  Treaty  of  Basel  of  1795  and  refused  to  join.  An  Austrian 
army  under  the  archduke  defeated  Jourdan  in  March,  while  an- 
other, supported  by  Naples,  was  successful  against  the  French  in 
Italy.  Meanwhile  the  congress  continued  to  sit  at  Rastatt,  in 
the  foolish  hope  of  making  peace  after  war  had  again  begun.  The 
approach  of  the  Austrian  troops  finally  dissolved  it;  but  the  two 
French  ambassadors,  who  left  for  France  on  the  evening  of  April 
28,  were  waylaid  and  murdered  near  the  city  by  some  Austrian 
hussars.  No  investigation  of  this  outrage  was  ever  published ;  the 
general  belief  is  that  the  court  of  Vienna  was  responsible  for  it. 
The  act  was  as  mad  as  it  was  infamous,  for  it  stirred  the  entire 
French  people  into  fury  against  Germany. 

In  the  spring  of  1799  a  Russian  army  commanded  by  Suvarov 
arrived  in  Italy,  and  in  a  short  time  completed  the  work  beg^n  by 
the  Austrians.  The  Roman  Republic  was  overthrown  and  Pope 
Pius  VII.  restored ;  all  northern  Italy,  except  Genoa,  was  taken  from 
the  French,  and  then,  finding  his  movements  hampered  by  the  jeal- 
ousy of  the  Austrian  generals,  Suvarov  crossed  the  St.  Gothard  with 
his  army,  fighting  his  way  through  the  terrific  gorges  of  the  Alps. 
To  avoid  the  French  General  Massena,  who  had  been  victorious  at 
Zurich,  he  was  compelled  to  choose  the  most  lofty  and  difficult 
passes,  and  his  march  over  them  was  a  marvel  of  daring  and  en- 


END    OF    THE    EMPIRE  363 

1799-1800 

durance.  This  was  the  end  of  his  campaign,  for  the  Emperor 
Paul,  suspicious  of  Austria  and  becoming  more  friendly  to  France, 
soon  afterward  recalled  him  and  his  troops.  During  the  campaign 
of  this  year  the  English  army  under  the  Duke  of  York  had  miser- 
ably failed  in  the  Netherlands,  but  the  archduke,  although  no  im- 
portant battle  was  fought,  held  the  French  thoroughly  in  check 
along  the  frontier  of  the  Rhine. 

The  end  of  the  year,  and  of  the  century,  brought  a  great 
change  in  the  destinies  of  France.  Bonaparte  had  returned  from 
Egypt,  and  on  November  9  (the  "  i8th  Brumaire")  by  a  coup 
d'etat  backed  by  an  armed  force  and  supported  by  his  personal 
popularity  and  reputation,  he  overthrew  the  government  of  the 
"  Directory,"  and  established  the  Consulate  in  the  place  of  the 
republic,  with  himself  as  First  Consul  for  ten  years.  Being  now 
practically  dictator,  he  took  matters  into  his  own  hands,  and 
his  first  measure  was  to  propose  peace  to  the  coalition,  on  the  basis 
of  the  Treaty  of  Campo  Formio.  This  was  rejected  by  England 
and  Austria,  who  stubbornly  believed  that  the  fortune  of  the  war 
was  at  last  turning  to  their  side.  In  Prussia,  Frederick  William  II. 
had  died  in  November,  1797,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Fred- 
erick William  III.,  who  -vt^as  a  man  of  excellent  personal  qualities, 
but  without  either  energy,  ambitions,  or  clear  intelligence.  Bona- 
parte's policy  was  simply  to  keep  Prussia  neutral,  and  he  found 
no  difficulty  in  maintaining  the  peace  which  had  been  concluded  at 
Basel  five  years  before.  England  chiefly  took  part  in  the  war  by 
means  of  her  navy,  and  by  contributions  of  money,  so  that  France, 
with  the  best  generals  in  the  world  and  soldiers  flushed  with  victory, 
was  only  called  upon  to  meet  Austria  in  the  field. 

At  this  crisis  the  Archduke  Charles,  Austria's  single  good  gen- 
eral, threw  up  his  command  on  account  of  the  interference  of  the 
court  of  Vienna  with  his  plans.  His  place  was  filled  by  the  Arch- 
duke John,  a  boy  of  nineteen,  under  whom  was  an  army  of  100,000 
men,  scattered  in  a  long  line  from  the  Alps  to  Frankfort.  Moreau 
easily  broke  through  this  barrier,  overran  Baden  and  Wiirtem- 
berg,  and  was  only  arrested  for  a  short  time  by  the  fortifications  of 
Ulm.  While  these  events  were  occurring,  another  Austrian  army 
under  Melas  besieged  Massena  in  Genoa.  Bonaparte  collected  a 
new  force  with  such  rapidity  and  secrecy  that  his  plan  was  not 
discovered,  made  a  heroic  march  over  the  St.  Bernard  Pass  of  the 
Alps  in  May,  and  came  down  upon  Italy  like  an  avalanche.    Genoa, 


364  GERMANY 

1800-1803 

thousands  of  whose  citizens  perished  with  hunger  during  the  siege, 
had  already  surrendered  to  the  Austrians;  but  when  the  latter 
turned  to  repel  Bonaparte  they  were  cut  to  pieces  on  the 
field  of  Marengo,  on  June  14,  1800.  This  magnificent  victory 
gave  all  northern  Italy,  as  far  as  the  River  Mincio,  into  the  hands 
of  the  French. 

Again  Bonaparte  offered  peace  to  Austria,  on  the  same  basis 
as  before.  An  armistice  was  concluded,  and  Francis  II.  made 
signs  of  accepting  the  offer  of  peace,  but  only  that  he  might  quietly 
recruit  his  armies.  When,  therefore,  the  armistice  expired,  on 
November  25,  Moreau  immediately  advanced  to  attack  the  new 
Austrian  army  of  nearly  90,000  men  which  occupied  a  position 
along  the  River  Inn,  On  December  3  the  two  met  at  Hohen- 
linden,  and  the  French,  after  a  bloody  struggle,  were  completely 
victorious.  There  was  now,  apparently,  nothing  to  prevent  Moreau 
from  marching  upon  Vienna,  and  the  Archduke  Charles,  who 
had  been  sent  in  all  haste  to  take  command  of  the  demoralized 
Austrians,  was  compelled  to  ask  for  an  armistice  upon  terms  very 
humiliating  to  the  Hapsburg  pride. 

After  all  its  haughtiness  and  incompetency,  the  court  of  Vienna 
gratefully  accepted  such  terms  as  it  could  get.  Francis  II.  sent  one 
of  his  ministers,  Coblenzl,  who  met  Joseph  Bonaparte  at  Lune- 
ville  (in  Lorraine),  and  there,  on  February  9,  1801,  peace  was 
concluded.  Its  chief  provisions  were  those  of  the  Treaty  of 
Campo  Formio :  all  the  territory  west  of  the  Rhine,  from  Basel  to 
the  sea,  was  given  to  France,  together  with  all  northern  Italy  west 
of  the  Adige.  The  Duke  of  Modena  received  part  of  Baden,  and 
the  Duke  of  Tuscany  Salzburg.  Other  temporal  princes  of  Ger- 
many, who  lost  part  or  the  whole  of  their  territory  by  the  treaty, 
were  compensated  by  secularizing  the  dominions  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical rulers,  and  dividing  them  among  the  former.  Thus  the  states 
governed  by  archbishops,  bishops,  abbots,  or  other  clerical  digni- 
taries, nearly  one  hundred  in  number,  were  abolished  at  one  blow, 
and  what  little  was  left  of  the  fabric  of  the  old  German  Empire 
fell  to  pieces.  The  division  of  all  this  territory  among  the  other 
states  gave  rise  to  new  difficulties  and  disputes,  whicli  were  not 
settled  for  two  years  longer.  The  diet  appointed  a  special  com- 
mission to  arrange  the  matter ;  but  inasmuch  as  Bonaparte,  through 
his  minister,  Talleyrand,  and  Alexander  I.  of  Russia  (the  Emperor 
Paul  having  met  with  a  violent  death  in  1801),  intrigued  in  every 


END     OF     THE     EMPIRE  365 

1803 

possible  way  to  enlarge  the  smaller  German  states  and  prevent  the 
increase  of  Austria,  the  final  arrangements  were  made  quite  as 
much  by  the  two  foreign  powers  as  by  the  commission  of  the  Ger- 
man diet. 

On  April  27,  1803,  the  decree  of  secularization  and  partition 
was  issued,  changing  the  map  of  Germany.  Only  six  free 
cities  were  left  out  of  fifty-two — Frankfort,  Hamburg,  Bremen, 
Lubeck,  Nuremberg,  and  Augsburg.  Prussia  received  three 
bishoprics  (Hildesheim,  Munster,  and  Paderborn)  and  a  number 
of  abbeys  and  cities,  including  Erfurt,  a  total  amounting  to  four 
times  as  much  as  she  had  lost  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  Baden 
was  increased  to  double  its  former  size  by  the  remains  of  the  Palat- 
inate (including  Heidelberg  and  Mannheim),  the  city  of  Con- 
stance, and  a  number  of  abbeys  and  monasteries.  A  part  of  Fran- 
conia,  with  Wurzburg  and  Bamberg,  was  added  to  Bavaria.  Wiir- 
temberg,  Hesse-Darmstadt,  and  Nassau  were  much  enlarged,  and 
most  of  the  other  states  received  smaller  additions.  At  the  same 
time  the  rulers  of  Baden,  Wiirtemberg,  Hesse-Cassel,  and  Salz- 
burg were  dignified  by  the  new  title  of  "  electors  " — when  they 
never  would  be  called  upon  to  elect  another  German  emperor! 

An  impartial  study  of  these  events  will  show  that  they  were 
caused  by  the  indifference  of  Prussia  to  the  general  interests  of 
Germany,  and  the  utter  lack  of  the  commonest  political  wisdom  in 
Francis  H.  of  Austria  and  his  ministers.  The  war  with  France 
was  wantonly  undertaken,  in  the  first  place;  it  was  then  continued 
with  stupid  obstinacy  after  two  offers  of  peace.  But  except  the 
loss  of  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  with  more  than  three  millions  of 
German  inhabitants,  Germany,  though  humiliated,  was  not  yet 
seriously  damaged.  The  complete  overthrow  of  church  authority, 
the  extinction  of  a  multitude  of  petty  states,  and  the  abolition  of  the 
special  privileges  of  nearly  a  thousand  "  imperial "  noble  families 
was  an  immense  gain  to  the  whole  country.  The  influence  which 
Bonaparte  exercised  in  the  partition  of  1803,  though  made  solely 
with  a  view  to  the  political  interests  of  France,  produced  some 
very  beneficial  changes  in  Germany.  In  regard  to  religion,  the 
chief  electors  were  now  equally  divided,  five  being  Catholic  and 
five  Protestant;  while  the  diet  of  princes,  instead  of  having  a 
Catholic  majority  of  twelve,  as  heretofore,  acquired  a  Protestant 
majority  of  twenty-two. 

France  was  now  the  ruling  power  on  the  Continent  of  Europe. 


866  GERMANY 

1802-1804 

Prussia  preserved  a  timid  neutrality,  Austria  was  powerless,  the 
new  republics  in  Holland,  Switzerland,  and  Italy  were  wholly  sub- 
jected to  French  influence,  Spain,  Denmark,  and  Russia  were 
friendly,  and  even  England,  after  the  overthrow  of  Pitt's  ministry, 
was  persuaded  to  make  peace  with  Bonaparte  in  1802.  The  same 
year  the  latter  had  himself  declared  First  Consul  for  life,  and  be- 
came absolute  master  of  the  destinies  of  France.  A  new  quarrel 
with  England  soon  broke  out,  and  this  gave  him  a  pretext  for 
sending  General  Mortier  with  12,000  men  to  seize  Hanover  and 
occupy  it.  Neither  the  Hanoverians  nor  any  of  the  Germans 
seriously  tried  by  force  of  arms  to  prevent  this  unwarranted  occu- 
pation. The  French  troops  overran  the  country  easily  in  a  few 
days,  and  plundered  to  the  amount  of  twenty-six  million  thalers. 
Prussia  and  the  other  German  states  quietly  looked  on  and  did 
nothing. 

In  March,  1804,  the  First  Consul  sent  a  force  across  the  Rhine 
into  Baden,  seized  the  Duke  d'Enghien,  a  fugitive  Bourbon  prince, 
carried  him  into  France,  and  there  had  him  shot.  This  outrage 
provoked  a  general  cry  of  indignation  throughout  Europe,  and 
strengthened  the  growing  feeling  that  no  faith  could  be  placed  in 
a  ruler  who  would  thus  kidnap  a  prince  from  neutral  territory  and 
then  murder  an  innocent  man.  Two  months  afterward,  on 
May  18,  Bonaparte  assumed  the  title  of  Napoleon,  Emperor  of 
the  French.  The  Italian  republics  were  changed  into  a  king- 
dom of  Italy,  and  that  period  of  arrogfant  and  selfish  personal 
government  commenced  which  brought  monarchs  and  nations  to 
his  feet,  and  finally  made  him  a  fugitive  and  a  prisoner.  On 
August  II,  1804,  Francis  II.  imitated  him,  by  taking  the  title 
of  "  Emperor  of  Austria,"  in  order  to  preserve  his  existing  rank, 
whatever  changes  might  afterward  come. 

England,  Austria,  and  Russia  were  now  more  than  ever  de- 
termined to  cripple  the  increasing  power  of  Napoleon.  Much  time 
was  spent  in  endeavoring  to  persuade  Prussia  to  join  the  move- 
ment, but  Frederick  William  III.  not  only  refused,  but  sent  an 
army  to  prevent  the  Russian  troops  from  crossing  Prussian  terri- 
tory, on  their  way  to  join  the  Austrians.  By  the  summer  of  1805 
the  Third  Coalition,  composed  of  the  three  powers  already  named 
and  Sweden,  was  formed,  and  a  plan  adopted  for  bringing  nearly 
400,000  soldiers  into  the  field  against  France.  Although  the  secret 
had  been  well  kept,  it  was  revealed  before  the  coalition  was  quite 


END    OF    THE     EMPIRE  367 

1804- 1806 

prepared,  and  Napoleon  was  ready  for  the  emergency.  He  had 
collected  an  army  of  200,000  men  at  Boulogne  for  the  invasion  of 
England;  giving  up  the  latter  design,  he  marched  rapidly  into 
southern  Germany,  procured  the  alliance  of  Baden,  Wiirtemberg, 
and  Bavaria,  with  40,000  more  troops,  and  thus  gained  the  first 
advantage  before  the  Russian  and  Austrian  armies  had  united. 

The  fortress  of  Ulm,  held  by  the  Austrian  General  Mack^ 
with  25,000  men,  surrendered  on  October  17.  The  French 
pressed  forward,  overcame  the  opposition  of  a  portion  of  the  allied 
armies  along  the  Danube,  and  on  November  13  entered  Vienna. 
Francis  II.  and  his  family  had  fled  to  Presburg.  The  Archduke 
Charles  hastening  from  Italy,  was  in  Styria  with  a  small  force, 
and  a  combined  Russian  and  Austrian  army  of  nearly  100,000 
men  was  in  Moravia.  Prussia  threatened  to  join  the  coalition, 
because  the  neutrality  of  her  territory  had  been  violated  by  Ber- 
nadotte,  in  marching  from  Hanover  to  join  Napoleon.  The  allies, 
although  surprised  and  disgracefully  defeated,  were  far  from  ap- 
preciating the  courage  and  skill  of  their  enemy,  and  still  believed 
they  could  overcome  him.  Napoleon  pretended  to  avoid  a  battle 
and  thereby  drew  them  on  to  meet  him  in  the  field.  On  Decem- 
ber 2  at  Austerlitz,  the  "  Battle  of  the  Three  Emperors "  (as 
the  Germans  call  it)  occurred,  and  by  the  close  of  that  day  the 
allies  had  lost  15,000  killed  and  wounded,  20,000  prisoners,  and 
200  cannon. 

Two  days  after  the  battle  Francis  II.  came  personally  to  Na- 
poleon and  begged  for  an  armistice,  which  was  granted.  The 
victorious  Emperor  of  the  French  took  up  his  quarters  in  the  palace 
of  the  Hapsburgs,  at  Schonbrunn,  as  a  conqueror,  and  waited  for 
the  conclusion  of  a  treaty  of  peace,  which  was  signed  at  Presburg 
on  December  26,  1805.  Austria  was  forced  to  give  up  Venice 
to  France,  Tyrol  to  Bavaria,  and  some  smaller  territory  to  Baden 
and  Wiirtemberg;  to  accept  the  policy  of  France  in  Italy,  Holland, 
and  Switzerland,  and  to  recognize  Bavaria  and  Wiirtemberg  as 
independent  kingdoms  of  Napoleon's  creation.  All  that  she  re- 
ceived in  return  was  the  archbishopric  of  Salzburg.  She  also  agreed 
to  pay  fifty  millions  of  francs  to  France,  and  to  permit  the 
formation  of  a  new  confederation  of  the  smaller  German  states, 
which  should  be  placed  under  the  protectorship  of  Napoleon.  The 
latter  lost  no  time  in  carrying  out  his  plan.  By  July,  1806,  the 
Rheinbund   (Confederation  of  the   Rhine)    was  entered  into  by 


868  GERMANY 

18M 

seventeen  states,  which  formed,  in  combination,  a  third  power, 
independent  of  either  Austria  or  Prussia. 

Immediately  afterward,  on  August  6,  1806,  Francis  II.  laid 
down  his  title  of  "  Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the 
German  Nation,"  and  the  political  corpse,  long  since  dead,  was 
finally  buried.  Just  a  thousand  years  had  elapsed  since  the  time 
of  Charlemagne.  The  power  and  influence  of  the  empire  had 
reached  their  culmination  under  the  Hohenstaufens,  but  even  then 
the  smaller  rulers  were  undermining  its  foundations.  It  existed 
for  a  few  centuries  longer  as  a  system  which  was  one-fourth  fact 
and  three-fourths  tradition.  During  the  Thirty  Years*  War  it 
practically  perished,  and  the  Hapsburgs,  after  that,  only  wore  the 
ornaments  and  trappings  it  left  behind.  The  German  people  were 
never  further  from  being  a  nation  than  at  the  commencement  of  this 
century;  but  most  of  them  still  clung  to  the  superstition  of  an  em- 
pire, until  the  compulsory  act  of  Francis  II.  showed  them,  at  last, 
that  there  was  none. 


PART  V 


THE  NEW  EMPIRE.     1806-1910 


Chapter  XXXV 

GERMANY   UNDER  NAPOLEON.     1 806-1814 

A  FTER  the  Peace  of  Presburg  there  was  nothing  to  prevent 
L\  Napoleon  from  carrying  out  his  plan  of  dividing  the 
JL  JL  greater  part  of  Europe  among  the  members  of  his  own 
family  and  among  the  marshals  of  his  armies.  He  gave  the  king- 
dom of  Naples  to  his  brother  Joseph ;  appointed  his  stepson,  Eugene 
Beauharnais,  viceroy  of  Italy,  and  married  him  to  the  daughter 
of  Maximilian  I.  (formerly  elector,  now  king)  of  Bavaria;  made 
a  kingdom  of  Holland,  and  gave  it  to  his  brother  Louis;  gave  the 
duchy  of  Jiilich,  Cleves,  and  Berg  to  Murat,  and  married  Stephanie 
Beauharnais,  the  niece  of  the  Empress  Josephine,  to  the  son  of  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Baden.  There  was  no  longer  any  thought  of  dis- 
puting his  will  in  any  of  the  smaller  German  states,  the  princes 
were  as  submissive  as  he  could  have  desired,  and  the  people  had 
too  long  been  powerless  to  dream  of  resistance. 

The  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  therefore,  was  constructed 
just  as  France  desired.  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  Baden,  Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  and  Nassau  united  with  twelve  small  principalities — 
the  whole  embracing  a  population  of  thirteen  millions — in  a  confed- 
eration, which  accepted  Napoleon  as  protector  and  agreed  to  main- 
tain an  army  of  63,000  men,  at  the  disposal  of  France.  This  ar- 
rangement divided  the  German  Empire  into  three  parts,  one  of 
which  (Austria)  had  just  been  conquered,  while  another  (Prussia) 
had  lost  all  its  former  prestige  by  its  weak  and  cowardly  policy. 
Napoleon  was  now  the  recognized  master  of  the  third  portion,  the 
action  of  which  was  regulated  by  a  diet  held  at  Frankfort.  In  order 
to  make  the  union  simpler  and  more  manageable,  all  the  independent 
countships  and  baronies  within  its  limits  were  abolished,  and  the 
seventeen  states  were  thus  increased  by  an  aggregate  territory  of 
about  12,000  square  miles.  Bavaria  took  possession,  without  more 
ado,  of  the  free  cities  of  Nuremberg  and  Augsburg. 

Prussia  by  this  time  had  agreed  with  Napoleon  to  give  up 
Anspach  and  Bayreuth  to  Bavaria,  and  receive  Hanover  instead. 

sn 


372  GERMANY 

1806 

This  provoked  the  enmity  of  England,  the  only  remaining  nation 
which  was  friendly  to  Prussia.  The  French  armies  were  still  quar- 
tered in  southern  Germany,  violating  at  will  not  only  the  laws  of 
the  land,  but  the  laws  of  nations.  A  bookseller  named  Palm,  in 
Nuremberg,  who  had  in  his  possession  some  pamphlets  opposing 
Napoleon's  schemes,  was  seized  by  order  of  the  latter,  tried  by  court- 
martial,  and  shot.  This  brutal  and  despotic  act  was  not  at  once 
resented  by  the  German  princes,  but  it  aroused  the  slumbering 
spirit  of  the  people.  The  Prussians,  especially,  began  to  grow  very 
impatient  of  their  pusillanimous  government;  but  Frederick  Wil- 
liam III.  did  nothing,  until  in  August,  1806,  he  discovered  that 
Napoleon  was  trying  to  purchase  peace  with  England  and  Russia 
by  offering  Hanover  to  the  former  and  Prussian  Poland  to  the 
latter.  Then  he  decided  for  war,  at  the  very  time  when  he  was 
tompelled  to  meet  the  victorious  power  of  France  alone! 

Napoleon,  as  usual,  was  on  the  march  before  his  enemy  was 
even  properly  organized.  He  was  already  in  Franconia,  and  in 
a  few  days  stood  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  200,000  men,  part  of 
whom  were  furnished  by  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine.  Prussia, 
assisted  only  by  Saxony  and  Weimar,  had  150,000,  commanded 
by  Prince  Hohenlohe  and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who  hardly 
reached  the  bases  of  the  Thuringian  Mountains  when  they  were 
met  by  the  French  and  hurled  back.  On  the  tableland  near  Jena 
and  Auerstadt  a  double  battle  was  fought  on  October  14,  1806. 
At  Jena  Napoleon  simply  crushed  and  scattered  to  the  winds 
the  army  of  Prince  Hohenlohe.  At  Auerstadt  Marshal  Davout, 
after  some  heavy  fighting,  defeated  the  Duke  of  Brunswick, 
who  was  mortally  wounded.  Then  followed  a  season  of  panic 
and  cowardice  which  now  seems  incredible.  The  French  over- 
whelmed Prussia,  and  almost  every  defense  fell  without  re- 
sistance as  they  approached.  The  strong  fortress  of  Erfurt,  with 
14,000  men,  surrendered  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Jena ;  the  still 
stronger  fortress  city  of  Magdeburg,  with  24,000  men,  opened  its 
gates  before  a  gun  was  fired !  Spandau  capitulated  as  soon  as  asked, 
on  October  24,  and  Davout  entered  Berlin  the  same  day.  Only 
General  Bliicher,  more  than  sixty  years  old,  cut  his  way  through 
the  French  with  10,000  men,  and  for  a  time  gallantly  held 
them  at  bay  in  Lubeck;  and  the  young  officers,  Gneisenau  and 
Schill,  kept  the  fortress  of  Colberg,  on  the  Baltic,  where  they  were 
steadily  besieged  until  the  war  was  over. 


NAPOLEON  873 

1806-1807 

When  Napoleon  entered  Berlin  in  triumph,  on  November  2'j, 
he  found  nearly  the  whole  population  completely  cowed  and 
ready  to  acknowledge  his  authority.  Seven  ministers  of  the 
Prussian  Government  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  him,  and  agreed 
at  once  to  give  up  all  of  the  kingdom  west  of  the  Elbe  for  the  sake 
of  peace!  Frederick  William  III.,  who  had  fled  to  Konigsberg, 
refused  to  confirm  their  action,  and  entered  into  an  alliance  with 
Alexander  I.  of  Russia  to  continue  the  war.  Napoleon,  mean- 
while, had  made  peace  with  Saxony,  which,  after  paying  heavy 
contributions  and  joining  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  was 
raised  by  him  to  the  rank  of  a  kingdom.  At  the  same  time  he 
encouraged  a  revolt  in  Prussian  Poland,  got  possession  of  Silesia, 
and  kept  Austria  neutral  by  skillful  diplomacy. 

Pressing  eastward  during  the  winter,  the  French  army,  140,- 
000  strong,  met  the  Russians  and  Prussians  on  February  8, 
1807,  in  the  murderous  battle  of  Eylau,  after  which,  because  its 
result  was  undecided,  Napoleon  concluded  a  truce  of  several  months. 
Frederick  William  appointed  a  new  ministry,  with  the  fearless  and 
patriotic  statesmen,  Hardenberg  and  Stein,  who  formed  a  fresh 
alliance  with  Russia,  which  was  soon  joined  by  England  and 
Sweden.  Nevertheless,  it  was  almost  impossible  to  reinforce  the 
Prussian  army,  and  Alexander  I.  made  no  great  exertions  to  in- 
crease the  Russian,  while  Napoleon,  with  all  Prussia  in  his  rear, 
was  constantly  receiving  fresh  troops.  Early  in  June  he  resumed 
hostilities,  and  on  the  14th,  with  a  much  superior  force,  so  com- 
pletely defeated  the  allies  in  the  battle  of  Friedland  that  they  were 
driven  over  the  River  Memel  into  Russian  territory. 

The  Russians  immediately  concluded  an  armistice.  Napoleon 
had  a  spectacular  interview  with  Alexander  I.  on  a  raft  in  the 
River  Memel,  at  Tilsit,  and  acquired  such  an  immediate  influence 
over  the  enthusiastic,  fantastic  nature  of  the  czar  that  he  became 
a  friend  and  practically  an  ally.  The  next  day  there  was  another 
interview,  at  which  Frederick  William  III.  was  also  present;  his 
wife,  the  beautiful  Queen  Louise,  a  woman  of  noble  and  heroic 
character,  whom  Napoleon  had  vilely  slandered,  was  persuaded  to 
accompany  him,  but  only  subjected  herself  to  new  humiliation. 
Her  entreaties  that  Prussia  might  be  spared  were  rudely  rejected 
by  Napoleon.  He  caused  the  patriotic  Hardenberg  to  be  dismissed 
from  the  Prussian  ministry,  and  gave  his  successor  a  completed 
document,  to  be  signed  without  discussion. 


374  GERMANY 

1807-1808 

By  this  Peace  of  Tilsit  (July,  1807)  Prussia  lost  very  nearly 
the  half  of  her  territory.  Her  population  was  diminished  from 
9,743,ocx)  to  4.938,000.  A  new  "  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw  "  was 
formed  by  Napoleon  out  of  her  Polish  acquisitions.  The  contribu- 
tions which  had  been  levied  and  which  Prussia  was  still  forced  to 
pay  amounted  to  a  total  sum  of  three  hundred  million  thalers,  and 
she  was  obliged  to  maintain  a  French  army  in  her  diminished  ter- 
ritory until  the  last  farthing  should  be  paid  over.  Russia,  on  the 
other  hand,  lost  nothing,  but  received  a  part  of  Polish  Prussia.  A 
new  kingdom  of  Westphalia  was  formed  out  of  Brunswick  and 
parts  of  Prussia  and  Hanover,  and  Napoleon's  brother,  Jerome, 
was  made  king.  In  America  Jerome  had  married  an  American 
lady.  Miss  Elizabeth  Patterson  of  Baltimore,  but  he  was  now  com- 
pelled to  renounce  her,  and  marry  the  daughter  of  the  new  King  of 
Wiirtemberg,  although,  as  a  Catholic,  he  could  not  do  this  without 
a  special  dispensation  from  the  Pope,  and  Pius  VII.  refused  to  give 
one.  Thus  he  became  a  bigamist,  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
Roman  Church.  Jerome  was  a  weak  and  licentious  individual  and 
was  heartily  hated  by  his  two  millions  of  German  subjects  during 
his  six  years'  rule  in  Cassel. 

Frederick  William  III.  was  at  last  stung  by  his  misfortunes 
into  the  adoption  of  another  and  manlier  policy.  He  called  Stein 
to  the  head  of  his  ministry  and  allowed  him  to  introduce  reforms 
for  the  purpose  of  assisting,  strengthening,  and  developing  the 
character  of  the  people.  But  150,000  French  troops  still  fed  like 
locusts  upon  the  substance  of  Prussia,  and  there  was  an  immense 
amount  of  poverty  and  suffering.  The  French  commanders  plun- 
dered outrageously  and  acted  with  shameless  brutality.  But  this 
was  not  the  end  of  the  degradation.  Napoleon,  at  the  climax  of 
his  power,  having  (without  exaggeration)  the  whole  Continent  of 
Europe  under  his  feet,  demanded  that  Prussia  should  join  the 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  reduce  her  standing  army  to  42,000 
men,  and,  in  case  of  necessity,  furnish  France  with  troops  against 
Austria.  The  temporary  courage  of  the  king  melted  away.  He 
signed  a  treaty  on  September  8,  1808,  without  the  knowledge  of 
Stein,  granting  nearly  everything  Napoleon  claimed — thus  com- 
pelling the  patriotic  statesman  to  resign,  and  making  what  was 
left  of  Prussia  tributary  to  the  designs  of  France. 

Napoleon  then  held  a  so-called  congress  at  Erfurt,  at  which 
all  the  German  rulers  except  the  Emperor  of  Austria  were  present, 


NAPOLEON  375 

1806-1809 

but  the  decisions  were  made  by  himself,  with  the  connivance  of 
Alexander  I.  of  Russia.  The  latter  received  Finland  and  the 
Danubian  principalities.  Napoleon  simply  carried  out  his  own 
personal  policy.  He  made  his  brother  Joseph  king  of  Spain,  g-ave 
Naples  to  his  brother-in-law,  Murat,  and  soon  afterward  annexed 
the  States  of  the  Church,  in  Italy,  to  France,  abolishing  the  tem- 
poral sovereignty  of  the  Pope.  Every  one  of  the  smaller  German 
states  had  already  joined  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  and  the 
diet  by  which  they  were  governed  abjectly  obeyed  his  will.  Princes, 
nobles,  officials,  and  authors  vied  with  each  other  in  doing  homage 
to  him.  Even  the  battles  of  Jena  and  Friedland  were  celebrated 
by  popular  festivals  in  the  capitals  of  the  other  states.  The  people 
of  southern  Germany,  especially,  rejoiced  over  the  shame  and  suf- 
fering of  their  brethren  in  the  north.  Ninety  German  authors 
dedicated  books  to  Napoleon,  and  the  newspapers  became  con- 
temptible in  their  servile  praises  of  his  rule. 

Austria,  always  energetic  at  the  wrong  time  and  weak  when 
energy  was  necessary,  prepared  for  war,  relying  on  the  help  of 
Prussia  and  possibly  of  Russia.  Napoleon  had  been  called  to  Spain, 
where  a  part  of  the  people,  supported  by  Wellington,  with  an 
English  force,  in  Portugal,  was  making  a  gallant  resistance  to 
the  French  rule.  A  few  patriotic  and  courageous  men  all  over 
Germany  began  to  consult  together  concerning  the  best  means  for 
the  liberation  of  the  country.  The  Prussian  ex-minister,  Baron 
Stein,  the  philosopher  Fichte,  the  statesman  and  poet  Arndt,  the 
generals  Gneisenau  and  Schamhorst,  the  historian  Niebuhr,  and 
also  the  Austrian  minister,  Count  Stadion,  used  every  effort  .to 
increase  and  extend  this  movement;  but  there  was  no  German 
prince,  except  the  young  Duke  of  Brunswick,  ready  or  willing 
to  act. 

The  Tyrolese,  who  are  still  the  most  Austrian  of  Austrians,  and 
the  most  Catholic  of  Catholics,  organized  a  revolt  against  the 
French-Bavarian  rule  early  in  1809.  This  was  the  first  purely 
popular  movement  in  Germany  which  had  occurred  since  the  revolt 
of  the  Austrian  peasants  against  Ferdinand  II.  nearly  two  hundred 
years  before.  The  Tyrolese  leaders  were  Andreas  Hofer,  a  hunter 
named  Speckbacher,  and  a  monk  named  Haspinger;  their  troops 
were  peasants  and  mountaineers.  The  plot  was  so  well  organized 
that  the  Alps  were  speedily  cleared  of  the  enemy,  and  on  April 
13  Hofer  captured  Innsbruck,  which  he  held  for  Austria.     When 


876  G  E  R  ]M  A  N  Y 

1809 

the  French  and  Bavarian  troops  entered  the  mountain  passes 
they  were  picked  off  by  skillful  riflemen  or  crushed  by  rocks  and 
trees  rolled  down  upon  them.  The  daring  of  the  Tyrolese  produced 
a  stirring  effect  throughout  Austria.  For  the  first  time  the  people 
came  forward  as  volunteers  to  be  enrolled  in  the  army,  and  the 
Archduke  Charles  in  a  short  time  had  a  force  of  300,000  men  at  his 
disposal. 

Napoleqn  returned  from  Spain  at  the  first  news  of  the  im- 
pending war.  As  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  did  not  dream 
of  disobedience,  as  Prussia  was  crippled,  and  the  sentimental 
friendship  of  Alexander  I.  had  not  yet  grown  cold,  he  raised  an 
army  of  180,000  men  and  entered  Bavaria  by  April  9.  The 
archduke  was  not  prepared.  His  large  force  had  been  divided 
and  stationed  according  to  a  plan  which  might  have  been  very 
successful  if  Napoleon  had  been  willing  to  respect  it.  He  lost 
three  battles  in  succession ;  the  last,  at  Eckmiihl  on  April  22,  oblig- 
ing him  to  give  up  Ratisbon  and  retreat  into  Bohemia.  The  second 
Austrian  army,  which  had  been  victorious  over  the  Viceroy  Eugene 
in  Italy,  was  instantly  recalled,  but  it  was  too  late ;  there  were  only 
30,000  men  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Danube,  between  the 
French  and  Vienna. 

The  movement  in  Tyrol  was  imitated  in  Prussia  by  Major 
Schill,  one  of  the  defenders  of  Colberg  in  1807.  His  heroism  had 
given  him  great  popularity,  and  he  was  untiring  in  his  efforts  to 
incite  the  people  to  revolt.  The  secret  association  of  patriotic  men, 
already  referred  to,  which  was  called  the  Tugendbund,  or  "  League 
of  Virtue,"  encouraged  him  so  far  as  it  was  able;  and  when  he 
entered  Berlin  at  the  head  of  four  squadrons  of  hussars,  imme- 
diately after  the  news  of  Hofer's  success,  he  was  received  with 
such  enthusiasm  that  he  imagined  the  moment  had  come  for  arous- 
ing Prussia.  Marching  out  of  the  city,  as  if  for  the  usual  cavalry 
exercise,  he  addressed  his  troops  in  a  fiery  speech,  revealed  to  them 
his  plans  and  inspired  them  with  equal  confidence.  With  his  little 
band  he  took  Halle,  besieged  Bernburg,  was  victorious  in  a  number 
of  small  battles  against  the  increasing  forces  of  the  French,  but 
at  the  end  of  a  month  was  compelled  to  retreat  to  Stralsund.  The 
city  was  stormed,  and  he  fell  in  resisting  the  assault;  the  French 
captured  and  shot  twelve  of  his  officers.  The  fame  of  his  exploits 
helped  to  fire  the  German  heart ;  the  courage  of  the  people  returned, 
and  they  began  to  grow  restless  and  indignant  under  their  shame. 


NAPOLEON  377 

1809-1810 

By  May  13  Napoleon  had  entered  Vienna  and  taken  up  his 
quarters  in  the  palace  of  Schonbrunn.  The  Archduke  Charles 
was  at  the  same  time  rapidly  approaching  with  an  army  of  75,000 
men,  and  Napoleon,  who  had  90,000,  hastened  to  throw  a  bridge 
across  the  Danube,  below  the  city,  in  order  to  meet  him  before  he 
could  be  reinforced.  On  the  21st,  however,  the  archduke  began  the 
attack  before  the  whole  French  army  had  crossed,  and  the  desperate 
battle  of  Aspern  followed.  After  two  days  of  bloody  fighting  the 
French  fell  back  upon  the  Island  of  Lobau,  and  their  bridge  was 
destroyed.  This  was  Napoleon's  first  defeat  in  Germany,  but  it 
was  dearly  purchased:  the  loss  on  each  side  was  about  24,000. 
Napoleon  issued  flaming  bulletins  of  victory  which  deceived  the 
German  people  for  a  time,  meanwhile  ordering  new  troops  to  be 
forwarded  with  all  possible  haste.  He  deceived  the  archduke  by 
a  heavy  cannonade,  rapidly  constructed  six  bridges  farther  down 
the  river,  crossed  with  his  whole  army,  and  July  6  fought  the  battle 
of  Wagram,  which  ended  with  the  defeat  and  retreat  of  the 
Austrians. 

An  armistice  followed,  and  the  war  was  concluded  on  October 
14  by  the  Peace  of  Vienna.  Francis  I.  was  compelled  to  give 
up  Salzburg  and  some  adjoining  territory  to  Bavaria;  Galicia 
to  Russia  and  the  grand  duchy  of  Warsaw ;  and  Camiola,  Croatia, 
and  Dalmatia  with  Trieste  to  the  kingdom  of  Italy — a  total  loss 
of  3,500,000  of  population.  He  further  agreed  to  pay  a  contribu- 
tion of  eighty-five  millions  of  francs  to  France,  and  was  persuaded, 
shortly  afterward,  to  give  the  hand  of  his  daughter,  Maria  Louisa, 
to  Napoleon,  who  had  meanwhile  divorced  himself  from  Empress 
Josephine.  The  Tyrolese,  who  had  been  encouraged  by  promises 
of  help  from  Vienna,  refused  to  believe  that  they  were  betrayed 
and  given  up.  Hofer  continued  his  struggle  with  success  after 
the  conclusion  of  peace,  until  near  the  close  of  the  year,  when 
the  French  and  Bavarians  returned  in  force,  and  the  movement 
was  crushed.  He  hid  for  two  months  among  the  mountains,  then 
was  betrayed  by  a  monk,  captured,  and  carried  in  chains  to  Mantua. 
Here  he  was  tried  by  a  French  court-martial  and  shot  on  February 
20,  1 8 10.  Francis  II.  might  have  saved  his  life,  but  he  made 
no  attempt  to  do  it.  Thus,  in  north  and  south,  Schill  and  Hofer 
perished,  unsustained  by  their  kings ;  yet  their  deeds  remained  as  an 
inspiration  to  the  whole  German  people. 

During  the  summer  of  1809  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  whose 


878 


GERMANY 


1809-1810 

land  Napoleon  had  added  to  Jerome's  kingdom  of  Westphalia,  made 
a  daring  attempt  to  drive  the  French  from  northern  Germany.  He 
had  joined  a  small  Austrian  army,  sent  to  operate  in  Saxony,  and 
when  it  was  recalled  after  the  battle  of  Eckmiihl  he  made  a  desper- 
ate effort  to  reconquer  Brunswick  with  a  force  of  only  2000  vol- 
unteers. The  latter  dressed  in  black  and  wore  a  skull  and  cross- 
bones  on  their  caps.  The  duke  took  Halberstadt,  reached 
Brunswick,  then  cut  his  way  through  the  German-French  forces 
closing  in  upon  him,  and  came  to  the  shore  of  the  North  Sea,  where, 
it  was  expected,  an  English  army  would  land.    He  and  his  troops 


''«''«.AN  e^AV>^^^ 


SPAIN 

i    CentralCurope 
J 


escaped  in  small  vessels.  The  English,  40,000  strong,  landed  on 
the  island  of  Walcheren  (on  the  coast  of  Belgium),  where  they  lay 
idle  until  driven  home  by  sickness. 

For  three  years  after  the  Peace  of  Vienna  Napoleon  was  all- 
powerful  in  Germany.  He  was  married  to  Maria  Louisa  on  April 
2,  1810;  his  son,  the  King  of  Rome,  was  bom  the  following 
March,  and  Austria,  where  Metternich  was  now  minister  instead 
of  Count  Stadion,  followed  the  policy  of  France.  All  Germany 
accepted  the  "  Continental  Blockade,"  which  cut  off  its  commerce 
with  England.  The  standing  armies,  of  Austria  and  Prussia  were 
reduced  to  one-fourth  of  their  ordinary  strength;  the  King  of 


I 


NAPOLEON  S79 

1810-1812 

Prussia,  who  had  lived  for  two  years  in  Konigsberg,  was  ordered 
to  return  to  Berlin,  and  the  French  ministers  at  all  the  smaller 
courts  became  the  practical  rulers  of  the  states.  In  1810  the  king- 
dom of  Holland  was  taken  from  Louis  Bonaparte  and  annexed  to 
the  French  Empire;  then  northern  Germany,  with  Bremen,  Ham- 
burg, and  Liibeck,  was  annexed  in  like  manner,  and  the  same  fate 
was  evidently  intended  for  the  states  of  the  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine,  if  the  despotic  selfishness  of  Napoleon  had  not  put  an  end 
to  his  marvelous  success.  The  King  of  Prussia  was  next  compelled 
to  suppress  the  "  League  of  Virtue."  Germany  was  filled  with 
French  spies  (many  of  them  native  Germans),  and  every  expres- 
sion of  patriotic  sentiment  was  reported  as  treason  to  France. 

In  the  territory  of  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  there  was, 
however,  very  little  real  patriotism  among  the  people.  In  Austria 
the  people  were  still  kept  down  by  the  iro.n  rule  of  the  Haps- 
burgs.  Only  in  the  smaller  Saxon  duchies,  and  in  Prussia,  the 
idea  of  resistance  was  fostered,  though  in  spite  of  Frederick  William 
IIL  Indeed,  the  temporary  removal  of  the  king  was  for  a  while 
secretly  advocated.  Hardenberg  and  Schamhorst  did  their  ut- 
most to  prepare  the  people  for  the  struggle  which  they  knew  would 
come.  The  former  introduced  new  laws,  based  on  the  principle 
of  the  equality  of  all  citizens  before  the  law,  their  equal  right  to 
development,  protection,  and  official  service.  Scharnhorst,  the  son 
of  a  peasant,  trained  the  people  for  military  duty,  in  defiance  of 
France;  he  kept  the  number  of  soldiers  at  42,000,  in  accordance 
with  the  treaty,  but  as  fast  as  they  were  well-drilled  he  sent  them 
home  and  put  fresh  recruits  in  their  place.  In  this  manner  he 
gradually  prepared  150,000  men  for  the  army. 

Alexander  I.  of  Russia  had  by  this  time  lost  his  sentimental 
friendship  for  Napoleon.  The  seizure  by  the  latter  of  the  territory 
of  the  Duke  of  Oldenburg,  who  was  his  near  relation,  greatly 
offended  him.  He  grew  tired  of  submitting  to  the  Continental 
Blockade,  and  in  181 1  adopted  commercial  laws  which  amounted 
to  its  abandonment.  Then  Napoleon  showed  his  own  overwhelming 
arrogance;  and  his  course  once  more  illustrated  the  abject  condi- 
tion of  Germany.  Every  ruler  saw  that  a  great  war  was  coming, 
and  had  nearly  a  year's  time  for  decision;  but  all  submitted! 
Early  in  1812  the  colossal  plan  was  put  into  action.  Prussia  agreed 
to  furnish  20,000  soldiers,  Austria  30,000,  and  the  Confederation 
of  the  Rhine,  which  comprised  the  rest  of  Germany,  was  called  upon 


880  GERMANY 

181? 

for  150,000.  France  furnished  more  than  300,000,  and  this  enor- 
mous military  force  was  set  in  motion  against  Russia,  which  was 
at  the  time  unable  to  raise  half  that  number  of  troops.  In  May 
Napoleon  and  Maria  Louisa  held  a  grand  court  in  Dresden,  which 
a  crowd  of  reigning  princes  attended,  and  where  even  Francis  I. 
and  Frederick  William  III.  were  treated  rather  as  vassals  than  as 
equals.  This  was  the  climax  of  Napoleon's  success.  Regardless 
of  distance,  climate,  lack  of  supplies,  and  all  the  other  impediments 
to  his  will,  he  pushed  forward  with  an  army  greater  than  Europe 
had  seen  since  the  days  of  Attila,  but  from  which  only  one  man, 
horse,  and  cannon  out  of  every  ten  returned. 

After  holding  a  grand  review  on  the  battlefield  of  Friedland, 
he  crossed  the  Niemen  and  entered  Russia  on  June  24,  1812, 
met  the  Russians  in  battle  at  Smolensk  on  August  16-17,  3"^  after 
great  losses  continued  his  march  toward  Moscow  through  a  country 
which  had  been  purposely  laid  waste,  and  where  great  numbers  of 
his  soldiers  perished  from  hunger  and  fatigue.  On  September  7 
the  Russian  army  of  120,000  men  met  him  on  the  field  of  Borodino, 
where  occurred  the  most  desperate  battle  of  all  his  wars.  At  the 
close  of  the  fight  80,000  dead  and  wounded  (about  an  equal  number 
on  each  side)  lay  upon  the  plain.  The  Russians  retreated,  re- 
pulsed but  not  conquered,  and  on  September  14  Napoleon  entered 
Moscow.  The  city  was  deserted  by  its  inhabitants.  All  goods  and 
treasures  which  could  be  speedily  removed  had  been  taken  away,  and 
the  next  evening  flames  broke  out  in  a  number  of  places.  The  con- 
flagration spread  so  that  within  a  week  four-fifths  of  the  city  was 
destroyed.  Napoleon  was  forced  to  leave  the  Kremlin  and  escape 
through  burning  streets ;  and  thus  the  French  army  was  left  without 
winter  quarters  and  provisions. 

After  offering  terms  of  peace  in  vain,  and  losing  a  month  of 
precious  time  in  waiting,  nothing  was  left  for  Napoleon  but  to 
commence  his  disastrous  retreat.  Cut  off  from  the  warmer  southern 
route  by  the  Russians  on  October  24,  his  army,  diminishing  day 
by  day,  endured  all  the  horrors  of  the  northern  winter,  and  lost 
so  many  in  the  fearful  passage  of  the  Beresina  and  from  the 
constant  attacks  of  the  Cossacks,  that  not  more  than  30,000 
men,  famished,  frozen,  and  mostly  without  arms,  crossed  the  Prus- 
sian frontier  about  the  middle  of  December.  After  reaching 
Wilna,  Napoleon  had  hurried  on  alone,  in  advance.  His  passage 
through  Germany  was  like  a  flight,  and  he  was  safe  in  Paris  before 


NAPOLEON  881 

1812-1813 

the  terrible  failure  of  his  campaign  was  generally  known  throughout 
Europe, 

When  Frederick  William  III.  agreed  to  furnish  20,000  troops 
to  France,  his  best  generals — Blucher,  Scharnhorst,  Gneisenau — 
and  three  hundred  officers  resigned.  The  command  of  the  Prus- 
sian contingent  was  given  to  General  York,  who  was  sent  to  Riga 
during  the  march  to  Moscow,  and  escaped  the  horrors  of  the  retreat. 
When  the  fate  of  the  campaign  was  decided,  he  left  the  French 
with  his  remaining  17,000  Prussian  soldiers,  concluded  a  treaty 
of  neutrality  with  the  Russian  General  Diebitsch,  called  an  assembly 
of  the  people  together  in  Konigsberg,  and  boldly  ordered  that  all 
men  capable  of  bearing  arms  should  be  mustered  into  the  army. 
Frederick  William,  in  Berlin,  disavowed  this  act,  but  the  Prussian 
people  were  ready  for  it.  The  excitement  became  so  great  that 
the  men  who  had  influence  with  the  king  were  so  urgent  that  he 
should  take  a  hand  of  open  resistance  to  France  that  the  hesitating 
Frederick  William  at  last  gave  way.  His  court  was  removed  to 
Breslau  and  an  alliance  was  entered  into  with  Alexander  I.,  by 
which  the  czar  agreed  to  continue  in  arms  against  Napoleon  until 
Prussia  should  have  regained  her  former  possessions  or  their  equiva- 
lent. Finally,  on  March  17,  181 3,  the  King  of  Prussia  issued  the 
famous  proclamations  "  To  my  People  "  and  "  To  my  Army,"  in 
which  with  stirring  words  he  voiced  the  growing  patriotism  and 
called  upon  them  to  choose  between  victory  and  ruin.  The  measures 
which  York  had  adopted  were  proclaimed  for  all  Prussia,  and  the 
patriotic  schemes  of  Stein  and  Hardenberg,  so  long  thwarted  by 
the  king's  weakness,  were  thus  suddenly  carried  into  action. 

The  effect  was  astonishing,  when  we  consider  how  little  real 
liberty  the  people  had  enjoyed.  But  they  had  been  educated  in 
patriotic  sentiments  by  another  power  than  the  government.  For 
years  the  works  of  the  great  German  authors  had  become  familiar 
to  them.  Klopstock  taught  them  to  be  proud  of  their  race  and 
name.  Schiller  taught  them  resistance  to  oppression.  Amdt  and 
Korner  gave  them  songs  which  stirred  them  more  than  the  sound 
of  drum  and  trumpet,  and  thousands  of  high-hearted  young  men 
mingled  with  them  and  inspired  them  with  new  courage  and  new 
hopes.  Within  five  months  Prussia  had  270,000  soldiers  under 
arms,  part  of  whom  were  organized  to  repel  the  coming  armies  of 
Napoleon,  while  the  remainder  undertook  the  siege  of  the  many 
Prussian  fortresses  which  were  still  garrisoned  by  the  French.    All 


88S  GERMANY 

1813 

classes  of  the  people  took  part  in  this  uprising.  The  professors 
followed  the  students,  the  educated  men  stood  side  by  side  with 
the  peasants,  mothers  gave  their  only  sons,  and  the  women  sent 
all  their  gold  and  jewels  to  the  treasury  and  wore  ornaments  of 
iron.  The  young  poet,  Theodor  Korner,  not  only  aroused  the 
people  with  his  fiery  songs,  but  fought  in  the  "  free  corps "  of 
Liitzow,  and  finally  gave  his  life  for  his  country.  The  Turner,  or 
gymnasts,  inspired  by  their  teacher  Jahn,  went  as  a  body  into  the 
ranks,  and  even  many  women  disguised  themselves  and  enlisted 
as  soldiers. 

With  the  exception  of  Mecklenburg  and  Dessau,  the  states 
of  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  still  held  to  France.  Saxony  and 
Bavaria  especially  distinguished  themselves  by  their  abject  fidelity 
to  Napoleon.  Austria  remained  neutral,  and  whatever  influence 
she  exercised  was  against  Prussia.  But  Sweden,  under  the  Crown 
Prince  Berriadotte  (Napoleon's  former  marshal)  joined  the  move- 
ment, with  the  condition  of  obtaining  Norway  in  case  of  success. 
The  operations  were  delayed  by  the  slowness  of  the  Russians  and 
the  disagreement,  or  perhaps  jealousy,  of  the  various  generals. 
Napoleon  made  good  use  of  the  time  to  prepare  himself  for  the  com- 
ing struggle.  Although  France  was  already  exhausted,  he  enforced 
a  merciless  conscription,  taking  young  boys  and  old  men,  until,  with 
the  German  soldiers  still  at  his  disposal,  he  had  a  force  of  nearly 
500,000  men. 

The  campaign  opened  well  for  Prussia.  Hamburg  and  Liibeck 
were  delivered  from  the  French,  and  on  April  5  the  Viceroy 
Eugene  was  defeated  at  Mockern  (near  Leipzig)  with  heavy  losses. 
The  first  great  battle  was  fought  at  Liitzen,  on  May  2,  on  the 
same  field  where  Gustavus  Adolphus  fell  in  1632.  The  Russians 
and  Prussians,  with  95,000  men,  held  Napoleon,  with  120,000,  at 
bay  for  a  whole  day,  and  then  fell  back  in  good  order,  after  a 
defeat  which  encouraged  instead  of  dispiriting  the  people.  The 
greatest  loss  was  the  death  of  Scharnhorst,  who  did  not  live  to  see 
the  glorious  fruits  of  his  silent  and  self-sacrificing  labors.  Shortly 
afterward  Napoleon  occupied  Dresden,  and  it  became  evident  that 
Saxony  would  be  the  principal  theater  of  war.  A  second  battle  of 
two  days  took  place  on  May  20-21,  in  which,  although  the 
French  outnumbered  the  Germans  and  Russians  two  to  one, 
they  barely  achieved  a  victory.  The  courage  and  patriotism  of 
the  people  were  now  beginning  to  tell,  especially  as  Napoleon's 


NAPOLEON  383 

1813 

troops  were  mostly  young,  physically  weak,  and  inexperienced.  In 
order  to  give  them  rest  he  offered  an  armistice  on  June  4,  an  act 
which  he  afterward  declared  to  have  been  the  greatest  mistake 
of  his  life.  It  was  prolonged  until  August  10,  and  gave  the  Ger- 
mans time  both  to  rest  and  recruit,  and  to  strengthen  themselves 
by  an  alliance  with  Austria. 

Francis  I.  judged  that  the  time  had  come  to  recover  what 
he  had  lost,  especially  as  England  formally  joined  Prussia  and 
Russia  on  June  14.  A  fortnight  afterward  an  agreement  was 
entered  into  between  the  two  latter  powers  and  Austria,  that 
peace  should  be  offered  to  Napoleon  provided  he  would  give  up 
northern  Germany,  the  Dalmatian  provinces,  and  the  grand  duchy 
of  Warsaw.  He  rejected  the  offer,  and  so  insulted  Metternich 
during  an  interview  in  Dresden  that  the  latter  became  his  bitter 
enemy  thenceforth.  The  end  of  all  the  negotiations  was  that  Aus- 
tria declared  war  on  August  12,  and  both  sides  prepared  at 
once  for  a  final  and  desperate  struggle.  The  Allies  now  had  800,000 
men,  divided  into  three  armies,  one  under  Schwarzenberg  con- 
fronting the  French  center  in  Saxony,  one  under  Bliicher  in  Silesia, 
and  a  third  in  the  north  under  Bernadotte.  The  last  of  these  gen- 
erals seemed  reluctant  to  act  against  his  former  leader,  and  his 
participation  was  of  little  real  service.  Napoleon  had  550,000  men, 
less  scattered  than  the  Germans,  and  all  under  the  government  of 
his  single  will.    He  was  still,  therefore,  a  formidable  foe. 

Just  sixteen  days  after  the  armistice  came  to  an  end  the 
old  Bliicher  won  a  victory  as  splendid  as  many  of  Napoleon's. 
Bliicher  was  ever  active,  pursuing,  withdrawing,  turning  day  into 
night  and  night  into  day,  but  always  sticking  close  to  the  enemy. 
Each  march  and  countermarch  cost  him  many  lives  and  the  soldiers 
suffered  terribly  in  the  rain-sodden,  shelterless  camps;  and,  worst 
of  all,  some  of  his  subordinates  lost  faith  in  him  and  began  to  com- 
plain. But  finally  he  caught  Marshal  Macdonald  on  the  banks 
of  a  stream  called  the  Katzbach,  in  Silesia,  and  defeated  him  with 
the  loss  of  12,000  killed  and  wounded,  18,000  prisoners  and  103 
cannon.  From  the  circumstance  of  his  having  cried  out  to  his 
men :  "  Forward !  Forward !  "  in  the  crisis  of  the  battle,  Bliicher 
was  thenceforth  called  "  Marshal  Forward  "  by  the  soldiers.  Five 
days  before  this  the  Prussian  general,  Biilow,  was  victorious  over 
Oudinot  at  Grossbeeren,  within  ten  miles  of  Berlin;  and  four 
days  afterward  the  French  General  Vandamme,  with  40,000  men. 


884  GERMANY 

181S 

was  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Austrians  and  Prussians  at  Kulm  on  the 
southern  frontier  of  Saxony.  Thus  within  a  month  Napoleon  lost 
one-fourth  of  his  whole  force,  while  the  fresh  hope  and  enthusiasm 
of  the  German  people  immediately  supplied  the  losses  on  their  side. 
It  is  true  that  Schwarzenberg  had  been  severely  repulsed  in  an 
attack  on  Dresden  on  August  27,  but  this  had  been  so  speedily  fol- 
lowed by  Vandamme's  defeat  that  it  produced  no  discouragment. 

The  month  of  September  opened  with  another  Prussian  vic- 
tory. On  the  6th  Bulow  defeated  Ney  at  Dennewitz,  taking  15,000 
prisoners  and  80  cannon.  This  change  of  fortune  seems  to  have 
bewildered  Napoleon.  Instead  of  his  former  promptness  and 
rapidity,  he  spent  a  month  in  Dresden  trying  to  entice  Bliicher 
or  Schwarzenberg  to  give  battle.  They,  meanwhile,  were  gradually 
drawing  nearer  to  each  other  and  to  Bemadotte,  and  their  final 
junction  was  effected  without  any  serious  movement  to  prevent  it 
on  Napoleon's  part.  Blucher's  passage  of  the  Elbe  on  October  3 
compelled  Napoleon  to  leave  Dresden  with  his  army  and  take  up  a 
new  position  in  Leipzig,  where  he  arrived  on  the  13th.  The 
Allies  instantly  closed  in  upon  him.  There  was  a  fierce  but  inde- 
cisive cavalry  fight  on  the  14th,  the  15th  was  spent  in  preparations 
on  both  sides,  and  on  the  i6th  the  great  "  Battle  of  the  Nations  " 
began. 

Napoleon  had  about  190,000  men,  the  Allies  300,000.  Both 
were  posted  along  lines  many  miles  in  extent,  stretching  over  the 
open  plain,  from  the  north  and  east  around  to  the  south  of  Leipzig, 
from  which  the  battle  takes  its  name.  Tlie  first  day's  fight  really 
comprised  three  distinct  battles,  two  of  which  were  won  by  the 
French  and  one  by  Bliicher.  During  the  afternoon  a  terrific  charge 
of  cavalry  under  Murat  broke  the  center  of  the  Allies,  and  Fred- 
erick William  and  Alexander  I.  narrowly  escaped  capture.  Schwar- 
zenberg, at  the  head  of  a  body  of  Cossacks  and  Austrian  hussars, 
repulsed  the  charge,  and  night  came  without  any  positive  result. 
Napoleon  sent  offers  of  peace,  but  they  were  not  answered,  and 
the  Allies  thereby  gained  a  day  for  reinforcements.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  1 8th  the  battle  was  resumed.  All  day  long  the  earth 
trembled  under  the  discharge  of  more  than  a  thousand  cannon, 
the  flames  of  nine  or  ten  burning  villages  heated  the  air,  and  from 
dawn  until  sunset  the  immense  hosts  carried  on  a  number  of  sepa- 
rate and  desperate  battles  at  different  points  along  the  line.  Na- 
poleon had  his  station  on  a  mound  near  a  windmill.    His  center 


NAPOLEON  885 

1813 

held  its  position,  in  spite  of  terrible  losses,  but  both  his  wings  were 
driven  back.  Bernadotte  did  not  appear  on  the  field  until  four  in 
the  afternoon,  but  about  4000  Saxons  and  other  Germans  went 
over  from  the  French  to  the  Allies  during  the  day,  and  the  de- 
moralizing effect  of  this  desertion  probably  influenced  Napoleon 
quite  as  much  as  his  material  losses.  He  gave  orders  for  an  instant 
retreat,  which  was  commenced  on  the  night  of  the  i8th.  His 
army  was  reduced  to  100,000  men.  The  Allies  had  lost,  in  killed 
and  wounded,  about  50,000. 

All  Germany  was  electrified  by  this  victory;  from  the  Baltic 
to  the  Alps  the  land  rang  with  rejoicings.  The  people  considered 
that  they  had  won  this  great  battle,  and  that  they  had  helped  in 
the  "  liberation  "  of  Germany  from  French  domination.  It  was, 
in  fact,  as  crushing  a  blow  for  France  as  Jena  had  been  to  Prussia 
or  Austerlitz  to  Austria.  On  the  morning  of  October  19  the 
Allies  began  a  storm  upon  Leipzig,  which  was  still  held  by 
Marshal  Macdonald  and  Prince  Poniatowsky,  to  cover  Napoleon's 
retreat.  By  noon  the  city  was  entered  at  several  gates ;  the  French, 
in  their  haste,  blew  up  the  bridge  over  the  Elster  River  before  a 
great  part  of  their  own  troops  had  crossed,  and  Poniatowsky,  with 
hundreds  of  others,  was  drowned  in  attempting  to  escape.  Among 
the  prisoners  was  the  King  of  Saxony,  who  had  stood  by  Napoleon 
until  the  last  moment.  In  the  afternoon  Alexander  I.  and  Frederick 
William  rode  proudly  into  Leipzig,  and  were  received  as  deliverers 
by  the  people. 

Yet  this  great  victory  was  not  followed  up  as  it  might  have 
been.  Disunion  reigned  in  the  camp  of  the  Allies.  Schwarzenberg 
had  taken  but  few  precautions  for  cutting  off  his  great  enemy's 
retreat;  Russia  and  Prussia  wished  to  pursue  Napoleon  even  to 
Paris;  but  England  and  Austria  thought  that  his  punishment  had 
already  been  sufficient.  Metternich,  the  new  Austrian  minister, 
was  afraid  the  balance  of  power  would  be  overthrown  in  Europe 
were  Napoleon  to  be  completely  ruined.  So  Napoleon  was  allowed 
leisure  to  continue  his  march  toward  France,  by  way  of  Naumburg, 
Erfurt,  and  Fulda.  He  lost  thousands  by  desertion  and  disease, 
but  met  with  no  serious  interference  until  he  reached  Hanau,  near 
Frankfort.  At  almost  the  last  moment  (October  14)  Maximilian 
I.  of  Bavaria  had  deserted  France  and  joined  the  Allies.  One  of 
his  generals,  Wrede,  v/ith  about  55,000  Bavarians  and  Austrians, 
marched  northward,  and  at  Hanau  intercepted  the  French.    Na- 


386 


GERMANY 


1813-1814 

poleon,  not  caring  to  engage  in  a  battle,  contented  himself  with 
cutting  his  way  through  Wrede's  army,  on  October  25.  He  crossed 
the  Rhine  and  reached  France  with  less  than  7o,0(X)  men,  without 
encountering  further  resistence. 

Jerome  Bonaparte  fled  from  his  kingdom  of  Westphalia  im- 
mediately after  the  battle  of  Leipzig.  Wurtemberg  joined  the 
Allies,  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine  dissolved,  and  the  artificial 
structure  which  Napoleon  had  created  fell  to  pieces.  The  Allies 
were  at  last  able  to  cross  the  Rhine  and  set  foot  on  French  soil. 
They  formed  three  great  armies :  One,  under  Biilow,  was  sent  into 
Holland  to  overthrow  the  French  rule  there;  another,  under 
Schwarzenberg,  marched  through  Switzerland  into  Burgundy,  about 
the  end  of  December,  hoping  to  meet  with  Wellington  somewhere 
in  central  France;  and  the  third  under  Bliicher,  which  had  been 
delayed  longest  by  the  doubt  and  hesitation  of  the  sovereigns, 
crossed  the  Rhine  at  three  points,  from  Coblentz  to  Mannheim,  on 
the  night  of  New  Year,  1814.  The  subjection  of  Germany  to 
France  was  over.  Only  the  garrisons  of  a  number  of  fortresses 
remained,  but  these  were  already  besieged,  and  they  surrendered 
one  by  one  in  the  course  of  the  next  few  months. 


Chapter  XXXVI 

THE  WAR   OF  LIBERATION;   REACTION.     1814-1848 

NAPOLEON'S  genius  was  never  more  brilliantly  mani- 
fested than  during  the  slow  advance  of  the  Allies  from 
the  Rhine  to  Paris,  in  the 'first  three  months  of  the  year 
1814.  He  had  not  expected  an  invasion  before  the  spring,  and 
was  taken  by  surprise;  but  with  all  the  courage  and  intrepidity  of 
his  younger  years  he  collected  an  army  of  100,000  men  and  marched 
against  Bliicher,  who  had  already  reached  Brienne.  In  a  battle 
on  January  29,  he  was  victorious,  but  a  second  on  February  i 
compelled  him  to  retreat.  Instead  of  following  up  this  ad- 
vantage, the  three  monarchs  began  to  consult.  They  rejected 
Bliicher's  demand  for  a  union  of  the  armies  and  an  immediate 
march  on  Paris,  and  ordered  him  to  follow  the  River  Marne 
in  four  divisions,  while  Schwarzenberg  advanced  by  a  more  south- 
erly route.  This  was  just  what  Napoleon  wanted.  He  hurled 
himself  upon  the  divided  Prussian  forces,  and  in  five  successive 
battles,  from  February  10  to  14,  defeated  and  drove  them  back. 
Then,  rapidly  turning  southward,  he  defeated  a  part  of  Schwarzen- 
berg's  army  at  Montereau  on  the  i8th,  and  compelled  the  latter  to 
retreat. 

The  Allies  now  offered  peace,  granting  to  France  the  bound- 
aries of  1792,  which  included  Savoy,  Lorraine,  and  Alsatia.  But 
Napoleon  was  so  elated  by  his  victories  that  he  rejected  the  offer. 
His  old  national  pride,  so  nearly  extinguished,  flamed  up  anew. 
Humble  enough  shortly  before,  he  now  recovered  all  his  assurance 
and  even  spoke  of  returning  to  the  Vistula.  This  put  a  check  on 
the  indecision  and  discord  among  the  Allies.  At  last  they  allowed 
Bliicher  to  have  his  way  and  march  in  a  straight  line  direct  on 
Paris.  Battle  after  battle  followed.  Napoleon  disputed  every  inch 
of  ground  with  the  most  marvelous  energy,  but  even  his  victories 
were  disasters,  for  he  had  no  means  of  replacing  the  troops  he  lost. 
The  last  fight  took  place  at  the  gates  of  Paris,  on  March  30, 

387 


888  GERMANY 

1814 

and  the  next  day  at  noon  the  three  sovereigns  of  Russia,  Prussia, 
and  Austria  made  their  triumphal  entrance  into  the  city. 

After  entering  Paris  the  AlHes  compelled  Napoleon  to  sign 
an  act  of  abdication,  at  Fontainebleau,  on  April  1 1 ;  and  then  with 
great  folly  they  allowed  him  still  to  reign  as  a  sovereign  prince  on 
the  little  island  of  Elba  with  the  title  of  emperor,  with  a  retinue 
of  officers,  and  with  a  standing  army  of  four  hundred  men.  It  was 
this  mistake  which  made  necessary  the  battle  of  Waterloo  a  year 
later.  His  wife,  Maria  Louisa,  received  the  duchy  of  Parma,  and  the 
other  Bonapartes  were  allowed  to  retain  the  title  of  prince,  with  an 
income  of  2,500,000  francs.  One  million  francs  was  given  to  the 
ex-Empress  Josephine,  who  died  the  same  year.  No  indemnity 
was  exacted  from  France;  not  even  the  works  of  art  stolen  from 
the  galleries  of  Italy  and  Germany  for  the  adornment  of  Paris 
were  reclaimed!^  The  Count  d'Artois  (afterward  Charles  X.) 
was  installed  as  head  of  the  temporary  government,  and  France 
was  given  the  boundaries  of  1792,  which  meant  an  increase  of  a 
million  inhabitants  and  a  very  valuable  addition  of  territory.  After 
enduring  ten  years  of  humiliation  and  outrage,  the  Allies  were  as 
tenderly  considerate  as  if  their  invasion  of  France  had  been  a  wrong 
for  which  they  must  atone  by  all  possible  concessions. 

In  southern  Germany,  where  very  little  national  sentiment 
existed,  the  treaty  was  quietly  accepted,  but  it  provoked  great  in- 
dignation among  the  people  in  the  north.  Their  rejoicings  over 
the  downfall  of  Napoleon,  the  liberation  of  Germany,  and  (as 
they  believed)  the  foundation  of  a  liberal  government  for  them- 
selves were  disturbed  by  this  manifestation  of  weakness  on  the 
part  of  their  leaders.  The  European  Congress,  which  was  opened 
on  November  i,  18 14,  at  Vienna,  was  not  calculated  to  restore 
their  confidence.  Francis  II.  and  Alexander  I.  were  the  lead- 
ing figures.  Other  nations  were  represented  by  their  best  states- 
men; the  former  ecclesiastical  rulers,  all  the  petty  princes,  and 
hundreds  of  the  "  imperial "  nobility  whose  privileges  had  been 
taken  away  from  them  attended  in  the  hope  of  recovering  something 
from  the  general  chaos.  A  series  of  splendid  entertainments  was 
given  to  the  members  of  the  congress,  and  it  soon  became  evident 

1  One  or  two  exceptions  were  made :  the  sword  of  Frederick  the  Great  and 
the  figure  of  Victory,  with  her  four  great  horses,  were  restored  to  Prussia  as 
tangible  proofs  of  the  liberation.  The  statue  of  Victory  was  mounted  again 
on  the  Brandenburg  gate  and  still  forms  a  splendid  background  to  the  view  up 
the  Linden. 


REACTION  389 

1814-1815 

to  the  world  that  Europe,  and  especially  Germany,  was  to  be  re- 
constructed according  to  the  will  of  the  individual  rulers,  without 
reference  to  principle  or  people,  or  the  good  of  Germany  as  a 
nation. 

France  was  represented  in  the  congress  by  Talleyrand,  who 
was  greatly  the  superior  of  the  other  members  in  the  arts  of  di- 
plomacy. Before  the  winter  was  over  he  persuaded  Austria  and 
England  to  join  France  in  an  alliance  against  Russia  and  Prussia, 
and  another  European  war  would  probably  have  broken  out  but 
for  the  startling  news  of  Napoleon's  landing  in  France  on  March 
I,  1815.  Then  all  were  compelled  to  suspend  their  jealousies 
and  unite  against  their  common  foe.  On  March  25  a  new 
alliance  was  concluded  between  Austria,  Russia,  Prussia,  and 
England.  The  first  three  agreed  to  furnish  150,000  men  each, 
while  the  last  contributed  a  lesser  number  of  soldiers  and  five 
million  pounds  in  money.  All  the  smaller  German  states  joined  in 
the  movement,  and  the  people  were  still  so  full  of  courage  and 
patriotic  hope  that  a  much  larger  force  than  was  needed  was  soon 
under  arms. 

Napoleon  reached  Paris  on  March  20,  and  instantly  com- 
menced the  organization  of  a  new  army,  while  offering  peace 
to  all  the  powers  of  Europe,  on  the  basis  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris. 
This  time  he  received  no  answer.  The  terror  of  his  name  had 
passed  away,  and  the  allied  sovereigns  acted  with  promptness  and 
courage.  Though  he  held  France,  Napoleon's  position  was  not 
strong,  even  there.  The  land  had  suffered  terribly,  and  the  people 
desired  peace,  which  they  had  never  enjoyed  under  his  rule.  He 
raised  nearly  half  a  million  soldiers,  but  was  obliged  to  use 
a  portion  of  them  in  preventing  outbreaks  among  the  population; 
then,  selecting  the  best,  he  marched  toward  Belgium  with  an  army 
of  128,000  in  order  to  meet  Wellington  and  Blucher  separately 
before  they  could  unite.  The  former  had  100,000  men,  most  of 
them  Dutch  and  Germans,  under  his  command;  the  latter,  with 
115,000,  was  rapidly  approaching  from  the  east.  By  this  time — 
the  beginning  of  June — neither  the  Austrians  nor  Russians  had 
entered  France. 

On  June  16,  181 5,  two  battles  occurred.  Napoleon  fought 
Bliicher  at  Ligny,  while  Marshal  Ney,  with  40,000  men,  attacked 
Wellington  at  Quatre-Bras.  Thus  neither  of  the  Allies  was  able  to 
help  the  other.     Blucher  defended  himself  desperately,   but  his 


390  GERMANY 

1815 

horse  was  shot  under  him  and  the  French  cavalry  almost  rode 
over  him  as  he  lay  upon  the  ground.  He  was  rescued  with  difficulty, 
and  then  compelled  to  fall  back.  The  battle  between  Ney  and  Wel- 
lington was  hotly  contested;  the  gallant  Duke  of  Brunswick  was 
slain  in  a  cavalry  charge,  and  the  losses  on  both  sides  were  very 
great,  but  neither  could  claim  a  decided  advantage.  Wellington 
retired  to  Waterloo  the  next  day,  to  be  nearer  Bliicher,  and  then 
Napoleon,  uniting  with  Ney,  marched  against  him  with  72,000  men, 
while  Grouchy  was  sent  with  36,000  to  engage  Bliicher.  Welling- 
ton had  68,000  men,  so  the  disproportion  in  numbers  was  not 
very  great,  but  Napoleon  was  much  stronger  in  cavalry  and  artillery. 

The  great  battle  of  Waterloo  began  on  the  morning  of  June 
18.  Wellington  was  attacked  again  and  again,  and  the  utmost 
courage  and  endurance  of  his  soldiers  barely  enabled  them  to  hold 
their  ground.  The  charges  of  the  French  were  met  by  an 
equally  determined  resistence,  but  the  fate  of  the  battle  depended 
on  Bliicher's  arrival.  The  latter  left  a  few  corps  at  Wavre,  his 
former  position,  in  order  to  deceive  Grouchy,  and  pushed  forward 
through  rain  and  across  a  marshy  country  to  Wellington's  relief. 
At  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  Napoleon  made  a  tremendous 
eflfort  to  break  the  English  center.  The  endurance  of  his  enemy 
began  to  fail,  and  there  were  sig^s  of  wavering  along  the  English 
lines  when  the  cry  was  heard :  "  The  Prussians  are  coming ! " 
Billow's  corps  soon  appeared  on  the  French  flank,  Bliicher's  army 
closed  in  shortly  afterward,  and  by  eight  o'clock  the  French  were 
flying  from  the  field.  Even  Napoleon  himself  had  to  join  in  the 
headlong  flight  toward  Paris.  As  he  sprang  from  his  carriage, 
defending  himself  with  his  pistol,  he  left  behind  his  hat,  sword, 
and  field-glass,  which  fell  into  Bliicher's  hands.  The  carriage  itself 
Bliicher  sent  to  his  wife  as  a  trophy.  There  were  no  allied  mon- 
archs  on  hand  to  prevent  following  up  the  victory  closely.  Bliicher 
and  Wellington  advanced  so  rapidly  that  they  stood  before  Paris 
within  ten  days,  and  Napoleon  was  left  without  any  alternative 
but  instant  surrender.  The  losses  at  Waterloo,  on  each  side,  were 
about  25,000  killed  and  wounded. 

This  was  the  end  of  Napoleon's  interference  in  the  history 
of  Europe.  All  his  offers  were  rejected,  he  was  deserted  by  the 
French,  and  a  fortnight  afterward,  failing  in  his  plan  of  escaping 
to  America,  he  surrendered  to  the  captain  of  an  English  frigate 
off  the  port  of  Rochefort.     From  that  moment  until  his  death  at 


REACTION  891 

1815 

St.  Helena  on  May  5,  1821,  he  was  a  prisoner  and  an  exile. 
A  new  treaty  was  made  between  the  allied  monarchs  and  the 
Bourbon  dynasty  of  France.  This  time  the  treasures  of  art  and 
learning  were  restored  to  Italy  and  Germany,  an  indemnity  of 
700,000,000  francs  was  exacted,  Savoy  was  given  back  to  Sardinia, 
and  a  little  strip  of  territory,  including  the  fortresses  of  Saarbriick, 
Saarlouis,  and  Landau,  added  to  Germany.  The  attempt  of  Aus- 
tria and  Prussia  to  acquire  Lorraine  and  Alsatia  was  defeated  by 
the  cunning  of  Talleyrand  and  the  opposition  of  Alexander  I.  of 
Russia. 

The  jealousies  and  dissensions  in  the  Congress  of  Vienna  were 
hastily  arranged  during  the  excitement  occasioned  by  Napoleon's 
return  from  Elba,  and  the  members  patched  together,  within  three 
months,  a  new  political  map  of  Europe.  There  was  no  talk  of 
restoring  the  lost  kingdom  of  Poland.  Prussia's  claim  to  Saxony 
(which  the  king,  Frederick  Augustus,  had  fairly  forfeited)  was 
defeated  by  Austria  and  England ;  and  then,  after  each  of  the  prin- 
cipal powers  had  secured  whatever  was  possible,  they  combined  to 
regulate  the  affairs  of  the  helpless  smaller  states.  Holland  and 
Belgium  were  united,  called  the  kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  and 
given  to  the  House  of  Orange.  Switzerland,  which  had  joined  the 
Allies  against  France,  was  allowed  to  remain  a  republic  and  received 
some  slight  increase  of  territory;  and  Lorraine  and  Alsatia  were 
allowed  to  remain  French. 

Austria  received  Lombardy  and  Venetia,  Illyria,  Dalmatia,  the 
Tyrol,  Salzburg,  Galicia,  and  whatever  other  territory  she  formerly 
possessed.  Prussia  gave  up  Warsaw  to  Russia,  but  kept  Posen, 
recovered  Westphalia  and  the  territory  on  the  Lower  Rhine,  and 
was  enlarged  by  the  annexation  of  Swedish  Pomerania,  part  of 
Saxony  and  the  former  archbishoprics  of  Mayence,  Treves,  and 
Cologne.  East  Friesland  was  taken  from  Prussia  and  given  to 
Hanover,  which  was  made  a  kingdom.  Weimar,  Oldenburg,  and 
the  two  Mecklenburgs  were  made  grand  duchies,  and  Bavaria  re* 
ceived  a  new  slice  of  Franconia,  including  the  cities  of  Wiirzburg 
and  Bayreuth,  as  well  as  all  of  the  former  Palatinate  lying  west  of 
the  Rhine.  Frankfort,  Bremen,  Hamburg,  and  Liibeck  were  allowed 
to  remain  free  cities.  The  other  smaller  states  were  favored  in 
various  ways,  and  only  Saxony  suffered  by  the  loss  of  nearly  half 
her  territory.  Fortunately  the  ecclesiastical  rulers  were  not  re- 
stored and  the  privileges  of  the  free  nobles  of  the  Middle  Ages  not 


89«  GERMANY 

1815 

reestablished.  Napoleon,  far  more  justly  than  Attila,  had  been  "  the 
Scourge  of  God  "  to  Germany.  In  crushing  rights  he  had  also 
crushed  a  thousand  abuses,  and  although  the  monarchs  who  ruled 
the  Congress  of  Vienna  were  thoroughly  reactionary  in  their  senti- 
ments, they  could  not  help  decreeing  that  what  was  dead  in  the 
political  constitution  of  Germany  should  remain  dead. 

All  the  German  states,  however,  felt  that  some  form  of  union 
was  necessary.  The  people  dreamed  of  a  nation,  of  a  renewal  of 
the  old  empire  in  some  better  and  stronger  form;  but  this  was 
mostly  a  vague  desire  on  their  part,  without  any  practical  idea  as 
to  how  it  should  be  accomplished.  The  German  ministers  at  Vienna 
were  divided  in  their  views ;  and  Metternich  took  advantage  of  their 
impatience  and  excitement  to  propose  a  scheme  of  confederation 
which  introduced  as  few  changes  as  possible  into  the  existing  state 
of  affairs.  It  was  so  drawn  up  that  while  it  presented  the  appear- 
ance of  an  organization,  it  secured  the  supremacy  of  Austria,  and 
only  united  the  German  states  in  mutual  defense  against  a  foreign 
foe  and  in  mutual  suppression  of  internal  progress.  This  scheme, 
hastily  prepared,  was  hastily  adopted  on  June  8,  1815  (before  the 
battle  of  Waterloo),  and  controlled  the  destinies  of  Germany  for 
nearly  fifty  years  afterward. 

The  new  German  Confederation  (Deutscher  Bund)  was  com- 
posed of  the  Austrian  Empire,  the  kingdoms  of  Prussia,  Bavaria, 
Saxony,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Hanover,  the  grand  duchies  of  Baden, 
Hesse-Darmstadt,  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  and  Strelitz,  Saxe-Wei- 
mar  and  Oldenburg;  the  electorate  of  Hesse-Cassel ;  the  duchies  of 
Brunswick,  Nassau,  Saxe-Gotha,  Coburg,  Meiningen  and  Hild- 
burghausen,  Anhalt-Dessau,  Bernburg  and  Kothen;  Denmark,  on 
account  of  Holstein;  the  Netherlands,  on  account  of  Luxemburg; 
the  four  free  cities,  and  eleven  small  principalities — making  a  total 
of  thirty-nine  states.  The  Act  of  Confederation  assured  to  them 
equal  rights,  independent  sovereignty,  the  peaceful  settlement  of 
disputes  between  them,  and  representation  in  a  federal  diet,  which 
was  to  be  held  at  Frankfort  under  the  presidency  of  Austria.  All 
together  were  required  to  support  a  permanent  army  of  300,000 
men  for  their  common  defense.  One  article  required  each  state  to 
introduce  a  representative  form  of  government.  All  religions  were 
made  equal  before  the  law,  the  right  of  emigration  was  conceded  to 
the  people,  the  navigation  of  the  Rhine  was  released  from  taxes,  and 
freedom  of  the  press  was  permitted. 


REACTION  893 

1815-1818 

Of  course  the  carrying  of  these  provisions  into  effect  was  left 
entirely  to  the  rulers  of  the  states.  The  people  were  not  recognized 
as  possessing  any  political  power.  Even  the  "  representative  gov- 
ernment "  which  was  assured  did  not  include  the  right  of  suffrage; 
the  king  or  duke  might  appoint  a  legislative  body  which  represented 
only  a  class  or  party,  and  not  the  whole  population.  Moreover,  the 
diet  was  prohibited  from  adopting  any  new  measure  or  making  any 
change  in  the  form  of  the  confederation,  except  by  a  unanimous 
vote.  The  whole  scheme  was  a  remarkable  specimen  of  promise 
to  the  ears  of  the  German  people  and  of  disappointment  to  their 
hearts  and  minds. 

The  Congress  of  Vienna  was  followed  by  an  event  of  quite  an 
original  character.  Alexander  I.  of  Russia  persuaded  Francis  II. 
and  Frederick  William  III,  to  unite  with  him  in  a  "  Holy  Alliance," 
which  all  the  other  monarchs  of  Europe  were  invited  to  join.  It 
was  simply  a  declaration,  not  a  political  act.  The  document  set 
forth  that  the  signers  pledged  themselves  to  treat  each  other  with 
brotherly  love,  to  consider  all  nations  as  members  of  one  Christian 
family,  to  rule  their  lands  with  justice  and  kindness,  and  to  be  ten- 
der fathers  to  their  subjects.  No  forms  were  prescribed  and  each 
monarch  was  left  free  to  choose  his  own  manner  of  Christian  rule. 
A  great  noise  was  made  about  the  Holy  Alliance  at  the  time,  because 
it  seemed  to  guarantee  peace  to  Europe,  and  peace  was  most  wel- 
come after  such  terrible  wars.  All  other  reigning  kings  and  princes, 
except  George  IV.  of  England,  Louis  XVIII,  of  France,  and  the 
Pope,  added  their  signatures,  but  not  one  of  them  manifested  any 
more  brotherly  or  fatherly  love  after  the  act  than  before. 

The  new  German  Confederation  having  given  the  separate 
states  a  fresh  lease  of  life,  after  all  their  convulsions,  the  rulers  set 
about  establishing  themselves  firmly  on  their  repaired  thrones.  Only 
the  most  intelligent  among  them  felt  that  the  days  of  despotism, 
however  "  enlightened,"  were  over,  others  avoided  the  liberal  pro- 
visions of  the  Act  of  Confederation,  abolished  many  political  re- 
forms which  had  been  introduced  by  Napoleon  and  oppressed  the 
common  people  even  more  than  his  satellites  had  done.  The  Elector 
of  Hesse-Cassel  made  his  soldiers  wear  powdered  queues,  as  in  the 
last  century ;  the  King  of  Wurtemberg  court-martialed  and  cashiered 
the  general  who  had  gone  over  with  his  troops  to  the  German  side 
at  the  battle  of  Leipzig;  and  in  Mecklenburg  the  liberated  people 
were  declared  serfs.    The  introduction  of  a  legislative  assembly  was 


394,  GERMANY 

1817-1819 

delayed,  and  in  some  states  even  wholly  disregarded.  Baden  and 
Bavaria  adopted  constitutions  in  1818,  Wiirtemberg  and  Hesse- 
Darmstadt  in  1819,  but  in  Prussia  an  imperfect  form  of  representa- 
tive government  for  the  provinces  was  not  arranged  until  1823. 
Austria,  meanwhile,  had  restored  some  ancient  privileges  of  the 
same  kind,  of  little  practical  value,  because  not  adapted  to  the  con- 
ditions of  the  age ;  the  people  were  obliged  to  be  content  with  them, 
for  they  received  no  more. 

No  class  of  Germans  were  so  bitterly  disappointed  in  the  results 
of  their  victory  and  deliverance  as  the  young  men,  especially  the 
thousands  who  had  fought  in  the  ranks  in  181 3  and  181 5.  At  all 
the  universities  the  students  formed  societies  which  were  inspired 
by  two  ideas — union  and  freedom.  Fiery  speeches  were  made,  songs 
were  sung,  and  free  expression  was  given  to  their  distrust  of  the 
governments  under  which  they  lived.  On  October  18,  18 17, 
they  held  a  grand  convention  at  Wartburg — the  castle  near 
Eisenach,  where  Luther  had  been  concealed — and  this  event  occa- 
sioned great  alarm  among  the  reactionary  class.  The  students  were 
very  hostile  to  the  influence  of  Russia,  and  many  persons  who  were 
suspected  of  being  her  secret  agents  became  specially  obnoxious 
to  them.  One  of  the  latter  was  the  dramatic  author,  Kotzebue,  who 
was  assassinated  in  March,  18 19,  by  a  young  student  named  Sand. 
There  is  not  the  least  evidence  that  this  deed  was  the  result  of  a 
widespread  conspiracy;  but  almost  every  reigning  prince  thereupon 
imagined  that  his  life  was  in  danger. 

A  congress  of  ministers  was  held  at  Carlsbad  the  same  summer 
and  the  most  despotic  measures  against  the  so-called  "  revolution  " 
were  adopted.  Freedom  of  the  press  was  abolished;  a  severe  cen- 
sorship enforced ;  the  formation  of  societies  among  the  students  and 
"  turners  "  was  prohibited ;  the  universities  were  placed  under  the 
immediate  supervision  of  government,  and  even  commissioners  were 
appointed  to  hear  what  the  professors  said  in  their  lectures!  Many 
of  the  best  men  in  Germany,  among  them  the  old  teacher  Jahn  and 
the  poet  Arndt,  were  deprived  of  their  situations  and  placed  under 
a  form  of  espionage.  Hundreds  of  young  men,  who  had  perpe- 
trated no  single  act  of  resistance,  were  thrown  into  prison  for  years, 
others  forced  to  fly  from  the  country,  and  every  manifestation  of 
interest  in  political  subjects  became  an  oflfense.  The  effort  of  the 
German  states  now  was  to  counteract  the  popular  rights  guaranteed 
by  the  Confederation  by  establishing  an  arbitrary  and  savage  police 


REACTION  895 

1819-1836 

system;  and  there  were  few  parts  of  the  country  where  the  people 
retained  as  much  genuine  liberty  as  they  had  enjoyed  a  hundred 
years  before. 

The  history  of  Germany  during  the  thirty  years  of  peace  which 
followed  is  marked  by  a  very  few  events  of  importance.  It  was  a 
season  of  gradual  reaction  on  the  part  of  the  rulers  and  of  increasing 
impatience  and  enmity  on  the  part  of  the  people.  Instead  of  becom- 
ing loving  families,  as  the  Holy  Alliance  designed,  the  states  (except 
some  of  the  little  principalities)  were  divided  into  two  hostile 
classes.  There  was  material  growth  everywhere.  The  wounds  left 
by  war  and  foreign  occupation  were  gradually  healed;  there  was 
order,  security  for  all  who  abstained  from  politics,  and  a  comfort- 
able repose  for  such  as  were  indifferent  to  the  future.  But  it  was  a 
sad  and  disheartening  period  for  the  men  who  were  able  to  see 
clearly  how  Germany,  with  all  the  elements  of  a  freer  and  stronger 
life  existing  in  her  people,  was  falling  behind  the  political  develop- 
ment of  other  countries. 

The  Paris  July  Revolution  of  1830,  which  placed  Louis  Phi- 
lippe on  the  throne  of  France,  was  followed  by  peculiar  uprisings  in 
some  parts  of  Germany.  But  the  governments  of  Prussia  and  Aus- 
tria were  too  strong  and  their  people  too  well  held  in  check  to  be 
affected.  In  Brunswick,  however,  the  despotic  duke,  Karl,  was 
deposed ;  Saxony  and  Hesse-Cassel  were  obliged  to  accept  co-rulers 
(out  of  their  reigning  families),  and  the  English  duke,  Ernest 
Augustus,  was  made  viceroy  of  Hanover.  These  four  states  also 
adopted  a  constitutional  form  of  government.  The  German  diet, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  used  what  power  it  possessed  to  counteract 
these  movements,  but  its  influence  was  limited  by  its  own  laws  of 
action.  The  hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  people  were  kept  alive,  in 
spite  of  the  system  of  repression,  and  some  of  the  smaller  states  took 
advantage  of  their  independence  to  introduce  various  measures  of 
reform. 

As  industry,  commerce,  and  travel  increased,  the  existence  of 
so  many  boundaries,  with  their  custom-houses,  taxes,  and  other 
hindrances,  became  an  unendurable  burden.  Bavaria  and  Wiirtem- 
berg  formed  a  customs  union  in  1828,  Prussia  followed,  and  by  1836 
all  of  Germany,  except  Austria,  was  united  in  the  Zollverein  (Tariff 
Union),  which  was  not  only  a  great  material  advantage,  but  helped 
to  inculcate  the  idea  of  a  closer  political  union.  On  the  other  hand, 
however,  the  monarchical  reaction  against  liberal  government  was 


896  GERMANY 

1835-1847 

Stronger  than  ever.  Ernest  Augustus  of  Hanover  arbitrarily  over- 
threw the  constitution  he  had  accepted,  and  Ludwig  I.  of  Bavaria, 
renouncing  all  his  former  professions,  made  his  land  a  very  nest  of 
absolutism.  In  Prussia  such  men  as  Stein,  Gneisenau,  and  William 
von  Humboldt  had  long  lost  their  influence,  while  others  of  less 
personal  renown  but  of  similar  political  sentiments  were  subjected 
to  contemptible  forms  of  persecution. 

In  March,  1835,  Francis  II.  of  Austria  died  and  was  succeeded 
by  his  son,  Ferdinand  I.,  a  man  of  such  weak  intellect  that  he  was 
in  some  respects  idiotic.  On  June  7,  1840,  Frederick  William 
III.  of  Prussia  died  and  was  also  succeeded  by  his  son,  Fred- 
erick William  IV.,  a  man  of  great  wit  and  intelligence,  who  had 
made  himself  popular  as  crown  prince,  and  whose  accession  the 
people  hailed  with  joy  in  the  enthusiastic  belief  that  better  days 
were  coming.  The  two  dead  monarchs,  each  of  whom  had  reigned 
forty-three  years,  left  behind  them  a  better  memory  among  their 
people  than  they  actually  deserved.  They  were  both  weak,  unstable, 
and  narrow-minded,  and  had  they  not  been  controlled  by  others 
they  would  have  ruined  Germany ;  but  they  were  alike  of  excellent 
personal  character,  amiable  and  very  kindly  disposed  toward  their 
subjects  so  long  as  the  latter  were  perfectly  obedient  and  reverential. 

There  was  no  change  in  the  condition  of  Austria,  for  Metter- 
nich  remained  the  real  ruler,  as  before.  In  Prussia  a  few  unimpor- 
tant concessions  were  made,  an  amnesty  for  political  offenses  was 
declared,  Alexander  von  Humboldt  became  the  king's  chosen  asso- 
ciate, and  much  was  done  for  science  and  art;  but  in  their  main 
hope  of  a  liberal  reorganization  of  the  government  the  people  were 
bitterly  deceived.  Frederick  William  IV.  took  no  steps  toward  the 
adoption  of  a  constitution;  he  made  the  censorship  and  the  super- 
vision of  the  police  more  severe;  he  interfered  in  the  most  arbitrary 
and  bigoted  manner  in  the  system  of  religious  instruction  in  the 
schools;  and  all  his  acts  showed  that  his  policy  was  to  strengthen  his 
throne  by  the  support  of  the  nobility  and  the  civil  service,  without 
regard  to  the  just  claims  of  the  people. 

Thus,  in  spite  of  the  external  quiet  and  order,  the  political 
atmosphere  gradually  became  more  sultry  and  disturbed  all  over 
Germany.  There  were  signs  of  impatience  in  all  quarters.  Various 
local  outbreaks  occurred  and  the  aspects  were  so  threatening  that 
in  February,  1847,  Frederick  William  IV.  endeavored  to  silence 
the  growing  opposition  by  ordering  the  formation  of  a  legislative 


REACTION 


897 


1847-1848 


assembly.  But  the  provinces  were  represented,  not  the  people,  and 
the  measure  only  emboldened  the  latter  to  clamor  for  a  direct  repre- 
sentation. Thereupon  the  king  closed  the  assembly  after  a  short 
session,  and  the  attempt  was  probably  productive  of  more  harm  than 


good.  In  most  of  the  other  German  states  the  situation  was  very 
similar.  Everywhere  there  were  elements  of  opposition,  all  the 
more  violent  and  dangerous  because  they  had  been  kept  down  with 
a  strong  hand  for  so  many  years. 


Chapter    XXXVII 

THE   REVOLUTION   OF    1848   AND   ITS   RESULTS 

1 848- 1 86 1 

THE  sudden  breaking  out  of  the  revolution  of  February, 
1848,  in  Paris,  the  flight  of  Louis  Philippe  and  his  family, 
and  the  proclamation  of  the  republic  acted  in  Germany 
like  a  spark  dropped  upon  powder.  All  the  disappointments  of 
thirty  years,  the  smoldering  impatience  and  sense  of  outrage,  the 
powerful  aspiration  for  political  freedom  among  the  people,  broke 
out  in  sudden  flame.  There  was  instantly  an  outcry  for  freedom  of 
speech  and  of  the  press,  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  a  constitutional 
form  of  government  in  every  state.  On  March  13  the  people  of 
Vienna  rose,  and  after  a  bloody  fight  with  the  troops  compelled 
Metternich  to  give  up  his  office  as  minister  and  seek  safety  in 
exile. 

In  Berlin,  Frederick  William  IV.  yielded  to  the  pressure  on 
March  18,  but,  either  by  accident  or  rashness,  a  fight  was  brought 
on  between  the  soldiers  and  the  people  and  a  number  of  the 
latter  were  slain.  Their  bodies,  lifted  on  planks,  with  all  the 
bloody  wounds  exposed,  were  carried  before  the  royal  palace  and 
the  king  was  compelled  to  come  to  the  window  and  look  upon  them. 
All  the  demands  of  the  revolutionary  party  were  thereupon  instantly 
granted.  The  next  day  Frederick  William  rode  through  the  streets, 
preceded  by  the  ancient  imperial  banner  of  black,  red,  and  gold, 
swore  to  grant  the  rights  which  were  demanded  and,  with  the  con- 
currence of  the  other  princes,  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  move- 
ment for  German  unity.  A  proclamation  was  published  which 
closed  with  the  words :  "  From  this  day  forward  Prussia  becomes 
merged  in  Germany."  The  soldiers  were  removed  from  Berlin 
and  the  popular  exciternent  gradually  subsided. 

Before  these  outbreaks  occurred  the  diet  at  Frankfort  had 
caught  the  alarm  and  hastened  to  take  a  step  which  seemed  to  yield 
something  to  the  general  demand.  On  March  i  it  invited  the 
separate  states  to  send  special  delegates  to  Frankfort,  empowered 

806 


REVOLUTION     OF     1848  399 

1848 

to  draw  up  a  new  form  of  union  for  Germany.  Four  days  after- 
ward a  meeting,  which  included  many  of  the  prominent  men  of 
southern  Germany,  was  held  at  Heidelberg,  and  it  was  decided  to 
hold  a  provisional  assembly  at  Frankfort  as  a  movement  preliminary 
to  the  greater  changes  which  were  anticipated.  This  proposal  re- 
ceived a  hearty  response.  On  March  31  quite  a  large  and 
respectable  body,  composed  of  representatives  from  all  the  German 
states,  came  together  in  Frankfort.  The  demand  of  the  party 
headed  by  Hecker  of  Baden  that  a  republic  should  be  proclaimed 
was  rejected;  but  the  principle  of  "  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  " 
was  adopted,  Schleswig  and  Holstein,  which  had  risen  in  revolt 
against  the  Danish  rule,  were  declared  to  be  a  part  of  Germany,  and 
a  Committee  of  Fifty  was  appointed  to  cooperate  with  the  old  diet 
in  calling  a  national  parliament. 

There  was  great  rejoicing  in  Germany  over  these  measures. 
The  people  were  full  of  hope  and  confidence.  The  men  who  were 
chosen  as  candidates  and  elected  by  suffrage  were  almost  without 
exception  persons  of  character  and  intelligence.  When  they  came 
together,  six  hundred  in  number,  and  opened  the  first  national  par- 
liament of  Germany,  in  the  church  of  St.  Paul  in  Frankfort,  on 
May  18,  1848,  there  were  few  patriots  who  did  not  believe  in 
a  speedy  and  complete  regeneration  of  their  country.  In  the  mean- 
time, however,  Hecker  and  Struve,  who  had  organized  a  great  num- 
ber of  republican  clubs  throughout  Baden,  rose  in  arms  against  the 
government.  After  maintaining  themselves  for  two  weeks  in  Frei- 
burg and  the  Black  Forest,  they  were  defeated  and  forced  to  take 
refuge  in  Switzerland.  Hecker  went  to  America,  and  Struve, 
making  a  second  similar  attempt  shortly  afterward,  was  taken 
prisoner. 

The  lack  of  practical  political  experience  among  the  members 
soon  disturbed  the  parliament.  Most  of  them  were  theorists  and 
insisted  on  carrying  out  their  pet  hobbies  instead  of  trying  to  adopt 
measures  suited  to  the  existing  circumstances.  With  all  their  hon- 
esty and  genuine  patriotism  they  relied  too  much  on  the  sudden 
enthusiasm  of  the  people  and  undervalued  the  actual  strength  of 
the  governing  classes,  because  the  latter  had  so  easily  yielded  to  the 
first  surprise.  The  republican  party  was  in  a  decided  minority,  and 
the  remainder  soon  became  divided  between  the  "  Small  Germans," 
who  favored  the  union  of  all  the  states,  except  Austria,  under  a 
constitutional  monarchy,  and  the  "  Great  Germans,"  who  insisted 


400  GERMANY 

1848 

that  Austria  should  be  included.  After  a  great  deal  of  discussion 
the  old  federal  diet  was  declared  abolished  and  a  provisional  central 
government  was  appointed.  The  Archduke  John  of  Austria — an 
amiable,  popular,  and  inoffensive  old  man — was  elected  "  Vicar- 
General  of  the  Empire."  This  action  was  finally  accepted  by  all 
the  states  except  Austria  and  Prussia,  which  delayed  to  commit 
themselves  until  they  were  strong  enough  to  oppose  the  whole 
scheme. 

The  history  of  1848  is  divided  into  so  many  detached  episodes 
that  it  cannot  be  given  in  a  connected  form.  The  revolt  which 
broke  out  in  Schleswig-Holstein  early  in  March  was  supported  by 
enthusiastic  German  volunteers,  and  then  by  a  Prussian  army,  which 
drove  the  Danes  back  into  Jutland.  Great  rejoicing  was  occasioned 
by  the  destruction  of  the  Danish  frigate  Christian  VIII.  and  the 
capture  of  the  GeHon,  at  Eckernforde,  by  a  battery  commanded  by 
Duke  Ernest  II.  of  Coburg-Gotha.  But  England  and  Russia  threat- 
ened armed  intervention;  Prussia  was  forced  to  suspend  hostilities 
and  make  a  truce  with  Denmark  on  terms  which  looked  very  much 
like  an  abandonment  of  the  cause  of  Schleswig-Holstein. 

This  action  was  accepted  by  a  majority  of  the  parliament  at 
Frankfort — a  course  which  aroused  the  deepest  indignation  of  the 
democratic  minority  and  their  sympathizers  everywhere  throughout 
Germany.  On  September  18  barricades  were  thrown  up  in  the 
streets  of  Frankfort  and  an  armed  mob  stormed  St.  Paul's 
church,  where  the  parliament  was  in  session,  but  was  driven  back 
by  Prussian  and  Hessian  troops.  Two  members.  General  Auers- 
wald  and  Prince  Lichnowsky,  were  barbarously  murdered  in  at- 
tempting to  escape  from  the  city.  This  lawless  and  bloody  event 
did  much  damage  to  the  national  cause;  the  two  leading  states, 
Prussia  and  Austria,  instantly  adopted  a  sterner  policy,  and  there 
were  soon  signs  of  a  general  reaction  against  the  revolution. 

The  condition  of  Austria  at  this  time  was  very  critical.  The 
uprising  in  Vienna  had  been  followed  by  powerful  and  successful 
rebellions  in  Lombardy,  Hungary,  and  Bohemia,  and  the  empire  of 
the  Hapsburgs  seemed  to  be  on  the  point  of  dissolution.  The  strug- 
gle was  confused  and  made  more  bitter  by  the  hostility  of  the  differ- 
ent nationalities:  the  Croatians,  at  the  call  of  the  emperor,  rose 
against  the  Hungarians,  and  then  the  Germans,  in  the  legislative 
assembly  held  at  Vienna,  accused  the  government  of  being  guided 
by  Slavonic  influences.    Another  furious  outbreak  occurred.    Count 


REVOLUTION     OF     1848  401 

184d 

Latour,  the  former  minister  of  war,  was  hanged  to  a  lamp-post  and 
the  city  was  again  in  the  hands  of  the  revolutionists.  Kossuth,  who 
had  become  all-powerful  in  Hungary,  had  already  raised  an  army 
to  be  employed  in  conquering  the  independence  of  his  country,  and 
he  now  marched  rapidly  toward  Vienna,  which  the  Austrian  gen- 
eral, Windischgratz,  was  trying  to  recapture  from  the  revolution- 
ists. Almost  within  sight  of  the  city  Kossuth  was  defeated  by 
Jellachich,  the  Ban  of  Croatia.  The  latter  joined  the  Austrians, 
and  after  a  furious  bombardment  Vienna  was  taken  by  storm.  Mes- 
senhauser,  the  commander  of  the  insurgents,  and  Robert  Blum,  a 
member  of  the  national  parliament,  were  afterward  shot  by  order 
of  Windischgratz,  who  crushed  out  all  resistance  by  the  most  severe 
and  inhuman  measures. 

Hungary,  nevertheless,  was  already  practically  independent, 
and  Kossuth  stood  at  the  head  of  the  government.  The  movement 
was  eagerly  supported  by  the  people.  An  army  of  100,000  men 
was  raised,  including  cavalry  which  could  hardly  be  equalled  in 
Europe.  Kossuth  was  supported  by  Gorgey  and  the  Polish  generals, 
Bem  and  Dembinski ;  and  although  the  Hungarians  at  first  fell  back 
before  Windischgratz,  who  marched  against  them  in  December,  they 
gained  a  series  of  splendid  victories  in  the  spring  of  1849,  and  their 
success  seemed  assured.  Austria  was  forced  to  call  upon  Russia 
for  help,  and  the  Emperor  Nicholas  responded  by  sending  an  army 
of  140,000  men.  Kossuth  vainly  hoped  for  the  intervention  of 
England  and  France  in  favor  of  Hungary.  Up  to  the  end  of  May 
the  patriots  were  still  victorious;  then  followed  defeats  in  the  field 
and  confusion  in  the  councils.  The  Hungarian  government  and  a 
large  part  of  the  army  fell  back  to  Arad,  where,  on  August  11, 
Kossuth  transferred  his  dictatorship  to  Gorgey,  and  the  latter,  two 
days  afterward,  surrendered  at  Vilagos,  wi^h  about  25,000  men,  to 
the  Russian  General  Riidiger. 

This  surrender  caused  Gorgey's  name  to  be  execrated  in  Hun- 
gary and  by  all  who  sympathized  with  the  Hungarian  cause  through- 
out the  world.  It  was  made,  however,  with  the  knowledge  of  Kos- 
suth, who  had  transferred  his  power  to  the  former  for  that  purpose, 
while  he,  with  Bem,  Dembinski  and  a  few  other  followers,  escaped 
into  Turkey.  In  fact,  further  resistance  would  have  been  madness, 
for  Haynau,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  Austrian 
forces,  was  everywhere  successful  in  front,  and  the  Russians  were 
in  the  rear.    The  first  judgment  of  the  world  upon  Gorgey's  act 


4Mt  GERMANY 

1848-1849 

was  therefore  unjust.  The  fortress  of  Comorn,  on  the  Danube, 
was  the  last  post  occupied  by  the  Hungarians.  It  surrendered,  after 
an  obstinate  siege,  to  Haynau,  who  then  perpetrated  such  barbarities 
that  his  name  became  infamous  in  all  countries. 

In  Italy  the  revolution  broke  out  in  March,  1848.  Marshal 
Radetzky,  the  Austrian  governor  in  Milan,  was  driven  out  of  the 
city.  The  Lombards,  supported  by  the  Sardinians  under  their  king, 
Charles  Albert,  drove  the  Austrians  back  to  Verona.  Venice  had 
also  risen,  and  nearly  all  northern  Italy  was  thus  freed  from  the 
Austrian  yoke.  In  the  course  of  the  summer,  however,  Radetzky 
achieved  some  successes,  and  thereupon  concluded  an  armistice  with 
Sardinia,  which  left  him  free  to  undertake  the  siege  of  Venice.  But 
in  March,  1849,  Charles  Albert  resumed  the  war,  and  on  the  23d, 
In  the  battle  of  Novara,  was  so  ruinously  defeated  that  he  abdicated 
the  throne  of  Sardinia  in  favor  of  his  son,  Victor  Emmanuel.  The 
latter,  on  leaving  the  field,  shook  his  sword  at  the  advancing  Aus- 
trians and  cried  out :  "  There  shall  yet  be  an  Italy !  " — but  he  was 
compelled  at  the  time  to  make  peace  on  the  best  terms  he  could  ob- 
tain. In  August  Venice  also  surrendered,  after  a  heroic  defense, 
and  Austria  was  again  supreme  in  Italy,  as  in  Hungary. 

During  this  time  the  national  parliament  in  Frankfort  had 
been  struggling  against  the  difficulties  of  its  situation.  The  demo- 
cratic movement  was  almost  suppressed  and  there  was  an  earnest 
effort  to  effect  a  German  union ;  but  this  was  impossible  without  the 
concurrence  of  either  Austria  or  Prussia,  and  the  rivalry  of  the  two 
gave  rise  to  constant  jealousies  and  impediments.  On  Decem- 
ber 2,  1848,  the  Viennese  ministry  persuaded  the  idiotic  Em- 
peror Ferdinand  to  abdicate,  and  placed  his  nephew,  Francis  Joseph, 
a  youth  of  eighteen,  upon  the  throne.  Every  change  of  the  kind 
begets  new  hopes  and  makes  a  government  temporarily  popular ;  so 
this  was  a  gain  for  Austria.  Nevertheless,  the  "  Small  German  " 
party  finally  triumphed  in  the  parliament.  On  March  28,  1849, 
Frederick  William  IV.  of  Prussia  was  elected  "  Hereditary 
Emperor  of  Germany."  All  the  small  states  accepted  the  choice. 
But  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  Saxony,  and  Hanover  refused,  Aus- 
tria protested,  and  the  king  himself,  after  hesitating  for  a  week, 
declined. 

This  was  a  g^eat  blow  to  the  hopes  of  the  national  party.  It 
was  immediately  followed  by  fierce  popular  outbreaks  in  Dresden, 
Wiirtemberg,  and  Baden.     In  Baden  the  grand  duke  was  driven 


REVOLUTION     OF     1848  403 

1849-1852 

away  and  a  provisional  government  instituted.  Prussia  sent  troops 
to  suppress  the  revolt,  and  a  war  on  a  small  scale  was  carried  on 
during  the  months  of  June  and  July,  when  the  republican  forces 
yielded  to  superior  power.  This  was  the  end  of  armed  resistance. 
Tlie  governments  had  recovered  from  their  panic,  the  French  Re- 
public, under  the  Prince-President  Louis  Napoleon,  was  preparing 
for  monarchy,  Italy  and  Hungary  were  prostrate,  and  nothing  was 
left  for  the  earnest  and  devoted  German  patriots  but  to  save  what 
rights  they  could  from  the  wreck  of  their  labors. 

The  parliament  gradually  dissolved,  by  tTie  recall  of  some  of 
its  members  and  the  withdrawal  of  others.  Only  the  democratic 
minority  remained  and  sought  to  keep  up  its  existence  by  removing 
to  Stuttgart ;  but  once  there  it  was  soon  forcibly  dispersed.  Prussia 
next  endeavored  to  create  a  German  union,  with  a  constitution  and 
two  representative  chambers.  Seventeen  German  states  accepted 
the  plan  and  met  at  Gotha  to  consider  the  matter  further,  and  later 
removed  to  Berlin.  But  unfortunately  many  of  the  more  important 
states — Hanover,  Saxony,  Bavaria,  and  Wurtemberg — either  from 
jealousy  of  Prussia  or  from  fear  of  Austria,  refused  to  join  this 
Prussian  union.  Austria,  meanwhile,  on  September  i,  1850,  de- 
clared the  old  diet  opened  at  Frankfort,  under  her  presidency,  and 
twelve  states  hastened  to  obey  her  call.  The  hostility  between  the 
two  parties  so  increased  that  for  a  time  war  seemed  to  be  inevitable. 
Austrian  troops  invaded  Hesse-Cassel,  an  army  was  collected  in 
Bohemia,  while  Prussia,  relying  on  the  help  of  Russia,  was  quite 
unprepared.  Then  Frederick  William  IV.  yielded.  At  Olmiitz 
Prussia  submitted  to  Austria's  demand  that  the  Prussian  union  be 
formally  dissolved.  Schwartzenberg,  the  Austrian  minister,  said 
openly  that  "  Prussia  must  be  degraded,  then  demolished."  On 
May  15,  185 1,  the  federal  diet  was  restored  in  Frankfort,  with  a 
vague  promise  that  its  constitution  should  be  amended. 

Thus,  after  an  interruption  of  three  years,  the  old  machine  was 
put  upon  the  old  track  and  a  strong  and  united  Germany  seemed  as 
far  off  as  ever.  A  dismal  period  of  reaction  began.  Louis  Napo- 
leon's violent  assumption  of  power  in  December,  1851,  was  wel- 
comed by  the  German  rulers,  all  of  whom  greeted  the  new  emperor 
as  "  brother."  *     A  congress  held  in  London  in  May,  1852,  con- 

^"Mon  Frire"  is  the  usual  form  of  address  of  one  sovereign  to  another. 
Napoleon  III.  felt  it  keenly  that  he  was  addressed  by  Nicholas  I.  of  Russia 
merely  as  "  My  friend,"  and  joined  in  the  Crimean  War  partly  from  a  desire  to 
avenge  what  he  regarded  as  an  insult 


404  GERMANY 

1852-1858 

firmed  Denmark  in  the  possession  of  Schleswig  and  Holstein.  Aus- 
tria abolished  her  legislative  assembly  in  utter  disregard  of  the  pro- 
visions of  1815,  upon  which  the  diet  was  based.  Hesse-Cassel,  with 
the  consent  of  Austria,  Prussia,  and  the  diet,  overthrew  the  consti- 
tution which  had  protected  the  people  for  twenty  years;  and  even 
Prussia,  where  an  arbitrary  policy  was  no  longer  possible,  gradually 
suppressed  the  more  liberal  features  of  the  government.  Worse 
than  this,  the  religious  liberty  which  Germany  had  so  long  enjoyed 
was  insidiously  assailed.  Austria,  Bavaria,  and  Wiirtemberg  made 
"  concordats  "  with  the  Pope,  which  gave  the  control  of  schools 
and  marriages  among  the  people  into  the  hands  of  the  priests. 

Placed  between  the  disguised  despotism  of  Napoleon  III.  and 
the  open  and  arrogant  despotism  of  Nicholas  of  Russia,  Germany 
for  a  time  seemed  to  be  destined  to  a  similar  fate.  The  result  of 
the  Crimean  War,  and  the  liberal  policy  inaugurated  by  Alexander 
II.  in  Russia,  damped  the  hopes  of  the  German  absolutists,  but 
failed  to  teach  them  wisdom.  Prussia  was  practically  governed  by 
the  interests  of  a  class  of  nobles  whose  absurd  pride  was  only 
equaled  by  their  ignorance  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived.  Not- 
withstanding all  his  wit  and  his  talent,  Frederick  William  IV.  was 
utterly  blind  to  his  position,  and  the  longer  he  reigned  the  more 
bitterly  he  made  the  name  of  Prussia  hated  throughout  the  rest  of 
Germany. 

But  the  fruits  of  the  national  movement  in  1848  and  1849 
were  not  lost.  The  earnest  efforts  of  those  two  years,  the  practical 
experience  of  political  matters  acquired  by  the  liberal  party,  were 
an  immense  gain  to  the  people.  In  every  state  there  was  a  strong 
body  of  intelligent  men  who  resisted  the  reaction  by  all  the  legal 
means  left  them,  and  who,  although  discouraged,  were  still  hopeful 
of  success.  The  increase  of  general  intelligence  among  the  people, 
the  growth  of  an  independent  press,  the  extension  of  railroads, 
which  made  the  old  system  of  passports  and  police  supervision  im- 
possible— all  these  were  powerful  agencies  of  progress;  but  only  a 
few  rulers  of  the  smaller  states  saw  this  truth,  and  favored  the 
liberal  side. 

By  October,  1858,  Frederick  William  IV.  had  become  prac- 
tically insane  and  incapable  of  governing;  therefore  his  brother. 
Prince  William,  began  to  rule  in  his  stead  as  regent.  Prince  Will- 
iam, then  sixty  years  old,  had  grown  up  without  the  least  prospect 
that  he  would  ever  wear  the  crown;  his  education  had  been  for  a 


REVOLUTION     OF     1848  405 

1858-1860 

military,  not  a  political,  career.^  Although  he  possessed  no  brilliant 
intellectual  qualities,  he  was  shrewd,  clear-sighted,  and  honest,  and 
after  a  year's  experience  of  the  policy  which  governed  Prussia,  he 
dismissed  the  feudalist  ministry  of  his  brother  and  established  a  new 
and  more  liberal  government.  The  hopes  of  the  German  people 
instantly  revived.  Bavaria  was  compelled  to  follow  the  example 
of  Prussia,  the  reaction  against  the  national  movemment  of  1848 
was  interrupted  everywhere  and  the  political  horizon  suddenly 
began  to  grow  brighter. 

The  desire  of  the  people  for  a  closer  national  union  was  so 
intense  that  when,  in  June,  1859,  Austria  was  defeated  at  Magenta 
and  Solferino,  a  cry  ran  through  Germany :  "  The  Rhine  must  be 
defended  on  the  Mincio !  "  and  the  demand  for  an  alliance  with 
Austria  against  France  became  so  earnest  and  general  that  Prussia 
would  certainly  have  yielded  to  it  if  Napoleon  III.  had  not  fore- 
stalled the  movement  by  concluding  an  instant  peace  with  Francis 
Joseph.  When,  in  i860,  all  Italy  rose  and  the  dilapidated  thrones 
of  the  petty  rulers  fell  to  pieces  as  the  people  united  under  Victor 
Emmanuel,  the  Germans  saw  how  hasty  and  mistaken  had  been 
their  excitement  of  the  year  before.  The  interests  of  the  Italians 
were  identical  with  theirs,  and  the  success  of  the  former  filled  them 
with  fresh  hope  and  courage. 

Austria,  after  her  defeat  and  the  overwhelming  success  of  the 

2  Bismarck  in  his  "  Reflections  and  Reminiscences "  gives  the  following  in- 
teresting account  of  William: 

"  From  the  moment  when  the  regency  began,  Prince  William  felt  so  keenly 
the  want  of  a  proper  business  education  that  he  shunned  no  labor  by  day  or  night 
in  order  to  make  good  the  deficiency.  When  he  was  *  transacting  public  affairs,' 
then  he  really  worked,  seriously  and  conscientiously.  He  read  all  papers  which 
were  sent  in  to  him,  not  merely  those  which  attracted  him,  and  studied  the 
treaties  and  laws  so  that  he  might  form  an  independent  judgment.  He  knew  no 
pleasure  which  would  have  taken  away  time  from  affairs  of  state.  He  never 
read  novels  or  other  books  which  did  not  concern  his  duties  as  ruler.  He  did 
not  smoke  or  play  cards.  When  there  was  a  shooting  party  at  Wusterhausen 
and  after  dinner  they  went  into  the  room  where  Frederick  William  I.  used  to 
collect  the  Tabakscollegium,  in  order  that  the  others  might  be  able  to  smoke  in 
his  presence,  he  had  a  long  Dutch  clay  pipe  handed  to  him,  took  a  few  puffs  at  it, 
and  then  put  it  down  with  a  wry  face.  His  only  recreation  was,  after  a  hard 
day's  work,  to  sit  in  his  box  at  the  theater;  but  even  there  I,  as  minister,  was 
allowed  to  seek  him  out  for  pressing  business,  and  make  reports  to  him  in  the 
small  room  behind  the  box  and  receive  his  signature.  A  good  night's  rest  was 
so  necessary  to  him  that  he  would  complain  of  a  bad  night  if  he  was  disturbed 
twice,  and  yet  I  never  saw  the  slightest  touch  of  annoyance  when  in  difficult 
circumstances  I  had  to  wake  him  up  at  two  or  three  o'clock  to  ask  for  a  hasty 
decision." 


406  GERMANY 

1860-1861 

popular  uprising  in  Italy,  seemed  to  perceive  the  necessity  of  con- 
ceding more  to  her  own  subjects.  She  made  some  attempts  to  intro- 
duce a  restricted  form  of  constitutional  government,  which  excited 
without  satisfying  the  people.  Prussia  continued  to  advance  slowly 
in  the  right  direction,  regaining  her  lost  influence  over  the  active 
and  intelligent  liberal  party  throughout  Germany.  On  January 
2,  i86i,  Frederick  William  IV.  died,  and  William  I.  became  king. 
From  this  date  a  new  epoch  begins. 


Chapter    XXXVIII 

THE   STRUGGLE   WITH   AUSTRIA;   THE   NORTH 
GERMAN    CONFEDERATION.     1 861-1870 

THE  first  important  measure  which  the  government  of 
William  I.  adopted  was  a  thorough  reorganization  of  the 
army.  Since  this  could  not  be  effected  without  an  in- 
creased expense  for  the  present  and  a  prospect  of  still  greater  bur- 
dens in  the  future,  the  legislative  assembly  of  Prussia  refused  to 
grant  the  appropriation  demanded.  The  plan  was  to  increase  the 
time  of  service  for  the  reserve  forces,  to  diminish  that  of  the  militia, 
and  enforce  a  sufficient  amount  of  military  training  upon  the  whole 
male  population,  without  regard  to  class  or  profession.  At  the 
same  time  a  convention  of  the  smaller  states  was  held  in  Wurzburg, 
for  the  purpose  of  drawing  up  a  new  plan  of  union,  in  place  of  the 
old  diet,  the  provisions  of  which  had  been  violated  so  often  that  its 
existence  was  becoming  a  mere  farce. 

Prussia  proposed  a  closer  military  union  under  her  own  direc- 
tion, and  this  was  accepted  by  Baden,  Saxe- Weimar  and  Coburg- 
Gotha ;  the  other  states  were  still  swayed  by  the  influence  of  Austria. 
The  political  situation  became  more  and  more  disturbed ;  William  I. 
dismissed  his  liberal  ministry  and  appointed  noted  reactionists,  who 
carried  out  his  plan  for  reorganizing  the  army  in  defiance  of  the 
assembly.  Finally,  in  September,  1862,  Baron  Otto  von  Bismarck- 
Schonhausen,  who  had  been  Prussian  ambassador  in  St.  Petersburg 
and  Paris,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  government.  This  remark- 
able man,  who  was  born  in  181 5,  in  Brandenburg,  was  already 
known  as  a  thorough  conservative  and  considered  to  be  one  of  the 
most  dangerous  enemies  of  the  liberal  and  national  party.  But  he 
had  represented  Prussia  in  the  diet  at  Frankfort  in  185 1,  he  under- 
stood the  policy  of  Austria  and  the  general  political  situation  better 
than  any  other  statesman  in  Germany,  and  his  course,  from  the  first 
day  of  receiving  power,  was  as  daring  as  it  was  skillful. 

Even  Metternich  was  not  so  heartily  hated  by  the  liberals  and 
constitutionalists  as  Bismarck,  when  the  latter  continued  the  policy 

407 


408  GERMANY 

1863-1864 

already  adopted  of  disregarding  the  will  of  the  people  as  expressed 
by  the  Prussian  assembly.^  Every  new  election  for  this  body  only 
increased  the  strength  of  the  opposition,  and  with  it  the  unpopularity 
of  Prussia  among  the  smaller  states.  The  appropriations  for  the 
army  were  steadfastly  refused,  yet  the  government  took  the  money 
and  went  on  with  the  work  of  reorganization,  Austria  endeavored 
to  profit  by  the  confusion  which  ensued.  After  having  privately 
consulted  the  other  rulers  Francis  Joseph  summoned  a  congress  of 
German  princes  to  meet  in  Frankfort,  in  August,  1863,  in  order  to 
accept  an  "  Act  of  Reform,"  which  substituted  an  assembly  of  dele- 
gates in  place  of  the  old  diet,  but  retained  the  presidency  of  Austria. 
William  I.,  at  Bismarck's  request,  refused  to  attend,  declaring  that 
the  first  step  toward  reform  must  be  a  parliament  elected  by  the 
people,  and  the  scheme  failed  so  completely  that  in  another  month 
nothing  more  was  heard  of  it. 

Soon  afterward  Frederick  VII.  of  Denmark  died,  and  his  suc- 
cessor. Christian  IX.,  Prince  of  Gliicksburg,  accepted  a  constitution 
which  detached  Schleswig  from  Holstein  and  incorporated  it  with 
Denmark.  This  was  in  violation  of  the  treaty  made  in  London  in 
1852,  and  gave  Germany  a  pretext  for  interference.  On  Decem- 
ber 7,  1863,  the  diet  decided  to  take  armed  possession  of  the 
duchies.  Austria  and  Prussia  united  in  January,  1864,  and  sent  a 
combined  army  of  43,000  men  under  Prince  Frederick  Charles  and 
Marshal  Gablenz  against  Denmark.  After  several  slight  engage- 
ments the  Danes  abandoned  the  "  Dannewerk  " — the  fortified  line 
across  the  peninsula — and  took  up  a  strong  position  at  Diippel. 
Here  their  entrenchments  were  stormed  and  carried  by  the  Prussians 
on  April  18.  The  Austrians  had  also  been  victorious  at  Oeversee 
and  the  Danes  were  everywhere  driven  back.  England,  France, 
and  Russia  interfered,  an  armistice  was  declared  and  an  attempt 
made  to  settle  the  question.  The  negotiations,  which  were  carried 
on  in  London  for  that  purpose,  failed ;  hostilities  were  resumed  and 
by  August  I  Denmark  was  forced  to  sue  for  peace. 

On  October  30  the  war  was  ended  by  the  relinquishment  of 
the    duchies    to    Prussia    and    Austria,    not    to    Germany.     The 

*  Bismarck's  energetic  policy  of  supporting  the  king  in  the  reorganization  of 
the  army  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  constitutionalists  and  of  uniting  Ger- 
many by  force,  if  necessary,  was  expressed  frequently  and  openly :  "  It  is  not 
Prussia's  liberalism  that  Germany  looks  to,  but  her  military  power."  "The 
unity  of  Germany  is  to  be  brought  about,  not  by  speeches  nor  by  votes  of 
majorities,  but  by  blood  and  iron." 


ADMIRAL   TEfiETHOF.    ON    THE   "  KAISER    MAX,      RAMS    THE    ITALIAN    IRON- 
CLAD  "re   d'iTALIA,"    and   sinks    her,   AT  LISSA,    1866 
Painting   by   A,   Romako 


STRUGGLE     WITH     AUSTRIA  409 

1864-1866 

Prince  of  Augustenburg,  however,  who  belonged  to  the  ducal  family 
of  Holstein,  claimed  the  territory  as  being  his  by  right  of  descent, 
and  took  up  his  residence  at  Kiel,  bringing  all  the  apparatus  of  a 
little  state  government,  ready  made,  along  with  him.  Prussia  de- 
manded the  acceptance  of  her  military  system,  the  occupancy  of 
the  forts,  and  the  harbor  of  Kiel  for  naval  purposes.  The  duke, 
encouraged  by  Austria,  refused.  A  diplomatic  quarrel  ensued,  which 
lasted  until  August  i,  1865,  when  William  I.  met  Francis  Joseph  at 
Gastein,  a  watering-place  in  the  Austrian  Alps,  and  both  agreed  on 
a  division  of  the  conquered  duchies,  Prussia  to  govern  in  Schleswig 
and  Austria  in  Holstein. 

Thus  far  the  course  of  the  two  powers  in  the  matter  had  made 
them  equally  unpopular  throughout  the  rest  of  Germany.  Austria 
had  quite  lost  her  temporary  advantage  over  Prussia  in  this  respect, 
and  she  now  endeavored  to  regain  it  by  favoring  the  claims  of  the 
Duke  of  Augustenburg  in  Holstein.  An  angry  correspondence  fol- 
lowed, and  early  in  1866  Austria  began  to  prepare  for  war,  not  only 
at  home,  but  by  secretly  canvassing  for  alliances  among  the  smaller 
states.  Neither  she  nor  the  German  people  understood  how  her 
policy  was  aiding  the  deep-laid  plans  of  Bismarck.  When  Austria 
demanded  of  the  diet  that  the  military  force  of  the  other  states 
should  be  called  into  the  field  against  Prussia  on  account  of  the 
invasion  of  Holstein  by  Prussian  troops,  only  Oldenburg,  Mecklen- 
burg, the  little  Saxon  principalities,  and  the  three  free  cities  of  the 
north  voted  against  the  measure!     All  the  rest  supported  Austria. 

The  vote  which  was  taken  on  June  14,  1866,  was  the  last  act 
of  the  German  diet.  Prussia  instantly  took  the  ground  that  it 
was  a  declaration  of  war,  and  set  in  motion  all  the  agencies  which 
had  been  quietly  preparing  for  three  or  four  years.  The  German 
people  were  stunned  by  the  suddenness  with  which  the  crisis  had 
been  brought  upon  them.  The  cause  of  the  trouble  was  so  slight, 
so  needlessly  provoked,  that  the  war  seemed  criminal.  It  was  looked 
upon  as  the  last  desperate  resource  of  the  absolutist,  Bismarck,  who, 
finding  the  Prussian  assembly  still  five  to  one  against  him,  had 
adopted  this  measure  to  recover  by  "  blood  and  iron  "  his  lost  posi- 
tion. Few  believed  that  Prussia,  with  nineteen  millions  of  inhab- 
itants, could  be  victorious  over  Austria  and  her  allies,  representing 
fifty  millions,  unless  after  a  long  and  terrible  struggle. 

Prussia,  however,  had  secured  an  ally  which,  although  not 
fortunate  in  the  war,  kept  a  large  Austrian  army  employed.     This 


410  GERMANY 

1866 

was  Italy,  which  eagerly  accepted  the  alliance  in  April  and  began  to 
prepare  for  the  struggle.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  every  prob- 
ability that  France  would  interfere  in  favor  of  Austria.  In  this 
emergency  the  Prussian  government  seemed  transformed.  It  stood 
like  a  man  aroused  and  fully  alive,  with  every  sense  quickened  and 
every  muscle  and  sinew  ready  for  action.  June  14  brought 
the  declaration  of  war;  on  the  15th  Saxony,  Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel, 
and  Nassau  were  called  upon  to  remain  neutral,  and  allowed  twelve 
hours  to  decide.  As  no  answer  came,  a  Prussian  army  from  Hol- 
stein  took  possession  of  Hanover  on  the  17th,  another  from  the 
Rhine  entered  Cassel  on  the  19th,  and  on  the  same  day  Leipzig  and 
Dresden  were  occupied  by  a  third.  So  complete  had  been  the 
preparations  that  a  temporary  railroad  bridge  was  made  in  advance 
to  take  the  place  of  the  one  between  Berlin  and  Dresden,  which  it 
was  evident  the  Saxons  would  destroy. 

The  King  of  Hanover,  with  18,000  men,  marched  southward 
to  join  the  Bavarians,  but  was  so  slow  in  his  movements  that  he  did 
not  reach  Langensalza  (fifteen  miles  north  of  Gotha)  until  June 
23.  Rejecting  an  offer  from  Prussia,  a  force  of  about  9000  men 
was  sent  to  hold  him  in  check.  A  fierce  battle  was  fought  on 
the  27th,  in  which  the  Hanoverians  were  victorious,  but  during  their 
delay  of  a  single  day  Prussia  had  pushed  on  new  troops  with  such 
rapidity  that  they  were  immediately  afterward  compelled  to  sur- 
render. The  soldiers  were  sent  home  and  the  king,  George  V., 
betook  himself  to  Vienna. 

All  Saxony  being  occupied,  the  march  upon  Austria  followed. 
There  were  three  Prussian  armies  in  the  field :  the  first,  under  Prince 
Frederick  Charles,  advanced  in  a  southeastern  direction  from  Sax- 
ony ;  the  second,  under  the  crown  prince,  Frederick  William,  from 
Silesia ;  and  the  third,  under  General  Herwarth  von  Bittenfeld,  fol- 
lowed the  course  of  the  Elbe.  The  entire  force  was  260,000  men, 
with  790  pieces  of  artillery.  The  Austrian  army,  now  hastening 
toward  the  frontier,  was  about  equal  in  numbers,  and  commanded 
by  General  Benedek.  Count  Clam-Gallas,  with  60,000  men,  was 
sent  forward  to  meet  Frederick  Charles,  but  was  defeated  in  four 
successive  small  engagements,  from  June  27  to  29,  and  forced  to  fall 
back  upon  Benedek's  main  army,  while  Frederick  Charles  and 
Herwarth,  whose  armies  were  united  in  the  last  of  the  four  battles, 
at  Gitchin,  remained  there  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  crown  prince. 

The  latter's  task  had  been  more  difficult.     On  crossing  the 


1866 


STRUGGLE     WITH     AUSTRIA 


411 


frontier  he  was  faced  by  the  greater  part  of  Benedek's  army,  and  his 
first  battle,  on  June  27,  at  Trautenau,  was  a  defeat.  A  second  bat- 
tle at  the  same  place  the  next  day  resulted  in  a  brilliant  victory, 
after  which  he  advanced,  achieving  further  successes  at  Nachod 
and  Skalitz,  and  on  June  30  reached  Koniginhof,  a  short 
distance  from  Gitchin.  King  William,  Bismarck,  Moltke,  and  Roon 
arrived  at  the  latter  place  on  July  2,  and  it  was  decided  to 
meet  Benedek,  who,  with  Clam-Gallas,  was  awaiting  battle  near 
Koniggratz,  without  further  delay.     The  movement  was  hastened 


by  indications  that  Benedek  meant  to  commence  the  attack  before 
the  army  of  the  crown  prince  could  reach  the  field. 

On  July  3  the  great  battle  of  Koniggratz  was  fought 
Both  in  its  character  and  its  results  it  was  very  much  like  that  of 
Waterloo.  Benedek  occupied  a  strong  position  on  a  range  of  low 
hills  beyond  the  little  River  Bistritz,  with  the  village  of  Sadowa  as 
his  center.  The  army  of  Frederick  Charles  formed  the  Prussian  cen- 
ter and  that  of  Herwarth  the  right  wing ;  their  position  only  differed 
from  that  of  Wellington  at  Waterloo  in  the  circumstance  that  they 
must  attack  instead  of  resist,  and  keep  the  whole  Austrian  army 
engaged  until  the  crown  prince,  like  Bliicher,  should  arrive  from  the 
left  and  strike  Benedek  on  the  right  flank.     The  battle  began  at 


4ia  GERMANY 

1866 

eig^ht  in  the  morning  and  raged  with  the  greatest  fury  for  six  hours. 
Again  and  again  the  Prussians  hurled  themselves  on  the  Austrian 
center,  only  to  be  repulsed  with  heavier  losses.  Herwarth  on  the 
right  gained  a  little  advantage ;  but  the  Austrian  rifled  cannon  pre- 
vented a  further  advance.  Violent  rains  and  marshy  soil  delayed 
the  crown  prince,  as  in  Blucher's  case  at  Waterloo.  The  fate  of  the 
day  was  very  doubtful  until  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  the 
smoke  of  cannon  was  seen  in  the  distance,  on  the  Austrian  right. 
The  army  of  the  crown  prince  had  arrived !  Then  all  the  Prussian 
reserves  were  brought  up;  an  advance  was  made  along  the  whole 
line ;  the  Austrian  right  and  left  were  broken,  the  center  gave  way, 
and  in  the  midst  of  a  thunder-storm  the  retreat  became  a  headlong 
flight.  Toward  evening,  when  the  sun  broke  out,  the  Prussians 
saw  Koniggratz  before  them.  The  king  and  crown  prince  met  on 
the  battlefield  and  the  army  struck  up  the  same  old  choral  which 
the  troops  of  Frederick  the  Great  had  sung  on  the  field  of  Leuthen. 

The  next  day  the  news  came  that  Austria  had  made  over  Ve- 
netia  to  France.  This  seemed  like  a  direct  bid  for  alliance,  and  the 
need  of  rapid  action  was  greater  than  ever.  Within  two  weeks  the 
Prussians  had  reached  the  Danube,  and  Vienna  was  an  easy  prey. 
In  the  meantime  the  Bavarians  and  other  allies  of  Austria  had  been 
driven  beyond  the  River  Main,  Frankfort  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Prussians,  and  a  struggle,  which  could  only  have  ended  in  the  defeat 
of  the  former,  commenced  at  Wiirzburg.  Then  Austria  gxive  way. 
An  armistice,  embracing  the  preliminaries  of  peace,  was  concluded 
at  Nikolsburg  on  July  2^,  and  the  Seven  Weeks'  War  came  to 
an  end.  Bismarck  showed  his  true  statesmanship  in  opposing 
the  men  who  wished  to  compel  Austria  to  give  up  territory  to  Prus- 
sia. He  clearly  saw  that  Prussia's  true  policy  was  to  avoid  wound- 
ing Austria  too  severely  and  so  leaving  behind  her  any  unnecessary 
bitterness  of  feeling  or  desire  for  revenge.  "  We  ought,"  he  said, 
"  rather  to  reserve  the  possibility  of  becoming  friends  again  with 
our  adversary  of  the  moment,  and  in  any  case  to  regard  the  Austrian 
state  as  a  piece  on  the  European  chessboard,  and  the  renewal  of 
friendly  relations  with  her  as  a  move  open  to  us."  If  Austria  were 
too  severely  treated,  she  would  have  become  the  ally  of  France  and 
of  all  Prussia's  enemies.  The  treaty  of  peace,  which  was  signed  at 
Prague  on  August  23,  placed  Austria  in  the  background  and  gave 
the  leadership  of  Germany  to  Prussia. 

It  was  now  seen  that  the  possession  of  Schleswig-Holstein  was 


STRUGGLE     WITH     AUSTRIA  413 

1866-1867 

not  the  main  object  of  the  war.  Bismarck's  real  purpose  was  the 
establishment  or  initiation  of  German  national  unity  under  the 
leadership  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  and  this  was  now  partially  accom- 
plished by  the  formation  of  a  North  German  Confederation, 
from  which  Austria  and  her  southern  allies  were  excluded.  But  the 
southern  states  were  left  free  to  treat  separately  with  the  new  power. 
Austria  was  compelled  to  recognize  this  new  state  of  things.  Thus 
"  blood  and  iron  "  had  been  used,  but  only  to  destroy  the  old  con- 
stitution of  Germany  and  render  possible  a  firmer  national  union, 
the  guiding  influence  of  which  was  to  be  Prussian  and  Protestant, 
instead  of  Austrian  and  Catholic. 

An  overwhelming  revulsion  of  feeling  took  place.  The  proud, 
conservative,  feudal  party  sank  almost  out  of  sight  in  the  enthusi- 
astic support  which  the  nationals  and  liberals  gave  to  William  I. 
and  Bismarck.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  latter  had  changed  in  char- 
acter. Personally,  his  haughty  aristocratic  impulses  were  no  doubt 
as  strong  as  ever ;  but,  as  a  statesman,  he  had  learned  the  great  and 
permanent  strength  of  the  opposition,  and  clearly  saw  what  immense 
advantages  Prussia  would  acquire  by  a  liberal  policy.  The  German 
people,  in  their  indescribable  relief  from  the  anxieties  of  the  past 
four  years — in  their  gratitude  for  victory  and  the  dawn  of  a  better 
future — soon  came  to  believe  that  he  had  always  been  on  their 
side.  Before  the  year  1866  came  to  an  end  the  Prussian  assembly 
accepted  all  the  past  acts  of  the  government  which  it  had  resisted, 
and  complete  harmony  was  reestablished. 

The  annexation  of  Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel,  Nassau,  Schleswig- 
Holstein  and  the  city  of  Frankfort  added  nearly  5,000,000  more  to 
the  population  of  Prussia.  The  constitution  of  the  "  North  German 
Confederation"  (Norddeutsche  Bund),  as  the  new  confederation 
was  called,  was  submitted  to  the  other  states  in  December  and  ac- 
cepted by  all  on  February  9,  1867.  Its  parliament,  elected  by  the 
people,  met  in  Berlin  immediately  afterward  to  discuss  the  articles 
of  union,  which  were  formally  adopted  on  April  16,  when  the  new 
power  commenced  its  existence.  It  included  all  the  German  states 
except  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  Hesse-Darmstadt  and  Baden,  and 
comprised  a  population  of  more  than  thirty  millions,  united  under 
one  military,  postal,  diplomatic  and  financial  system,  like  the  states 
of  the  American  Union.  The  King  of  Prussia  was  president  of 
the  whole,  and  Bismarck  was  made  chancellor.  About  the  same 
time  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Baden  entered  into  a  secret  oflfen- 


414 


GERMANY 


1867-1870 


sive  and  defensive  alliance  with  Prussia,  and  the  policy  of  their  gov- 
ernments thenceforth  was  so  conciliatory  toward  the  North  German 
Confederation  that  the  people  almost  instantly  forgot  the  hostility 
created  by  the  war. 

In  the  spring  of  1867  Napoleon  III.  took  advantage  of  the 
circumstance  that  Luxemburg  was  practically  detached  from  Ger- 
many by  the  downfall  of  the  old  diet  and  offered  to  buy  it  of  Hol- 
land. The  agreement  was  nearly  concluded  when  Bismarck,  in  the 
name  of  the  North  German  Confederation,  made  such  an  energetic 
protest  that  the  negotiations  were  suspended.  A  conference  of  the 
European  powers  in  London,  in  May,  adjudged  Luxemburg  to 
Holland,  satisfying  neither  France  nor  Germany;  but  Bismarck's 
boldness  and  firmness  gave  immediate  authority  to  the  new  confed- 
eration. The  people  at  last  felt  that  they  had  a  living,  acting  gov- 
ernment, not  a  mere  conglomeration  of  empty  forms,  as  hitherto. 


Chapter  XXXIX 

THE   FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR.    1870-1871 

THE  experience  of  the  next  three  years  showed  how  com- 
pletely the  new  order  of  things  was  accepted  by  the  great 
majority  of  the  German  people.  Even  in  Austria  the 
defeat  at  Koniggratz  and  the  loss  of  Venetia  were  welcomed  by  the 
Hungarians  and  Slavonians,  and  hardly  regretted  by  the  German 
population,  since  it  was  evident  that  the  imperial  government  must 
give  up  its  absolutist  policy  or  cease  to  exist.  In  fact,  the  former 
ministry  was  immediately  dismissed.  Count  Beust,  a  Saxon  and  a 
Protestant,  was  called  to  Vienna,  and  a  series  of  reforms  was  in- 
augurated which  did  not  terminate  until  the  Hungarians  had  won 
all  they  demanded  in  1848,  and  the  Germans  and  Bohemians  enjoyed 
fully  as  much  liberty  as  the  Prussians. 

The  Seven  Weeks'  War  of  1866,  in  fact,  was  a  phenomenon  in 
history;  no  nation  ever  acquired  so  much  fame  and  influence  in  so 
short  a  time  as  Prussia.  The  relation  of  the  king,  and  especially  of 
the  statesman  who  guided  him,  Count  Bismarck,  toward  the  rest 
of  Germany  was  suddenly  and  completely  changed.  Napoleon  III. 
was  compelled  to  transfer  Venetia  to  Italy,  and  thus  his  declaration 
in  1859  that  "  Italy  should  be  free,  from  the  Alps  to  the  Adriatic," 
was  made  good — but  not  by  France.  While  the  rest  of  Europe 
accepted  the  changes  in  Germany  with  equanimity,  if  not  with  ap- 
probation, the  vain  and  sensitive  people  of  France  felt  themselves 
deeply  humiliated.  Thus  far  the  policy  of  Napoleon  III.  had 
seemed  to  preserve  the  supremacy  of  France  in  European  politics. 
He  had  overawed  England,  defeated  Russia,  and  treated  Italy  as  a 
magnanimous  patron.  But  the  best  strength  of  Germany  was  now 
united  under  a  new  constitution,  after  a  war  which  made  the  achieve- 
ments at  Magenta,  Solferino,  and  in  the  Crimea  seem  tame.  The 
ostentatious  designs  of  France  in  Mexico  came  also  to  a  tragic  end 
in  1867,  ^^^  ^^^^  disgraceful  failure  there  only  served  to  make  the 
success  of  Prussia,  by  contrast,  more  conspicuous. 

The  opposition  to  Napoleon  III.  in  the  French  Assembly  made 

415 


416  GERMANY 

1870 

use  of  these  facts  to  increase  its  power.  His  own  success  had  been 
due  to  good  luck  rather  than  to  superior  abiHty.  He  was  now  more 
than  sixty  years  old,  he  was  afflicted  with  a  painful  malady,  he  had 
become  cautious  and  wavering  in  his  policy,  and  he  undoubtedly 
saw  how  much  would  be  risked  in  provoking  a  war  with  the  North 
German  Confederation.  But  the  temper  of  the  French  people  left 
him  no  alternative.  He  had  certainly  meant  to  interfere  in  1866 
had  not  the  marvelous  rapidity  of  Prussia  prevented  it.  That  France 
had  no  shadow  of  right  to  interfere  was  all  the  same  to  his  people. 
They  held  him  responsible  for  the  creation  of  a  new  political  Ger- 
many, which  was  apparently  nearly  as  strong  as  France,  and  that 
was  a  thing  not  to  be  endured.  He  yielded  to  the  popular  excite- 
ment and  only  waited  for  a  pretext  which  might  justify  him  before 
the  world  in  declaring  war. 

Such  a  pretext  came  in  1870.  The  Spaniards  had  expelled 
their  Bourbon  queen,  Isabella,  in  1868,  and  were  looking  about  for 
a  new  monarch  from  some  other  royal  house.  Their  choice  fell 
upon  Prince  Leopold  of  Hohenzollern,  a  distant  relation  of  William 
I.  of  Prussia,  but  also  nearly  connected  with  the  Bonaparte  family 
through  his  wife,  who  was  a  daughter  of  the  Grand  Duchess  Ste- 
phanie Beauhamais.  On  July  6  Napoleon's  minister,  the  Due  de 
Gramont,  declared  to  the  French  Assembly  that  this  choice  would 
never  be  tolerated  by  France.  The  French  ambassador  to  Prus- 
sia, Benedetti,  was  forthwith  sent  to  Ems,  where  King  William 
was  taking  the  waters,  to  treat  with  the  king  directly  and  ask  him 
to  forbid  Leopold  to  accept  the  Spanish  throne.  The  king  very 
properly  replied  that  he  had  no  control  over" Leopold;  that  his  only 
connection  with  the  affair  was  that  he  happened  to  be  the  head  of 
the  family  to  which  Leopold  was  distantly  related;  that  Leopold 
might  refuse  the  offer,  but  that  he  would  not  and  could  not  force 
him  to  do  so.  As  the  peace  of  Europe  seemed  to  be  threatened 
seriously.  Prince  Leopold  at  once  (on  July  12)  publicly  and  volun- 
tarily declined  the  offer,  and  all  cause  of  trouble  seemed  to  be  re- 
moved. 

The  French  people,  however,  were  insanely  bent  upon  war. 
They  wished  to  humiliate  Prussia.  The  war  party  in  the  chambers, 
supported  by  the  Parisian  populace,  demanded  guarantees  that  Prus- 
sia would  not  renew  the  candidacy  of  Prince  Leopold  for  the  Span- 
ish throne  and  the  other  sinister  designs  which  were  supposed  to 
lie  behind  this.    The  excitement  was  so  great  and  so  urgently  fos- 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN     WAR  417 

1870 

tered  by  the  Empress  Eugenie,  the  Due  de  Gramont,  and  the  army 
that  Napoleon  III.  again  yielded.  A  dispatch  was  sent  to  Benedetti, 
instructing  him  to  secure  from  King  William  a  formal  promise  that 
he  would  never  allow  a  Hohenzollern  at  any  time  in  the  future  to 
be  a  candidate  for  the  Spanish  throne.  With  these  instructions 
Benedetti,  on  July  13,  in  the  Garden  at  Ems,  met  King  William  and 
tried  to  satisfy  the  wishes  of  the  Paris  government.  But  the  king 
adhered  to  his  former  position  with  a  firm  and  courteous  refusal. 
When  Benedetti  insisted,  the  king  told  him  he  had  nothing  more 
to  say  and  turned  his  back  on  him.  He  returned  to  his  lodgings 
and  sent  to  Bismarck  a  cipher  dispatch  of  the  events  at  Ems  and  of 
how  the  French  had  tried  to  exact  from  him  a  humiliating  promise. 

Bismarck,  who  probably  had  more  to  do  with  this  Hohenzollern 
candidacy  than  he  admits  in  his  "  Reflections  and  Reminiscences," 
had  clearly  from  the  first  expected  that  the  outcome  would  be  war 
with  France — the  war  for  which  he  and  Roon  and  Moltke  had  been 
so  carefully  preparing.  "  On  July  12,"  he  says,  "  I  decided  to  hurry 
off  from  Varzin  to  Ems  to  discuss  with  his  Majesty  about  summon- 
ing the  Reichstag  for  the  purpose  of  the  mobilization.  As  I  passed 
through  Wussow  my  friend  Mulert,  the  old  clergyman,  stood  before 
the  parsonage  door  and  warmly  greeted  me;  my  answer  from  the 
open  carriage  was  a  thrust  in  carte  and  tierce  in  the  air,  and  he 
clearly  understood  that  I  believed  I  was  going  to  war.  As  I  entered 
the  courtyard  of  my  house  at  Berlin,  and  before  leaving  the  carriage, 
I  received  telegrams  from  which  it  appeared  that  the  king  was  con- 
tinuing to  treat  with  Benedetti,  even  after  the  French  threats  and 
outrages  in  parliament  and  in  the  press,  and  not  referring  him  with 
calm  reserve  to  his  ministers.  During  dinner,  at  which  Moltke  and 
Roon  were  present,  the  announcement  arrived  from  the  embassy  in 
Paris  that  the  Prince  of  Hohenzollern  had  renounced  his  candida- 
ture in  order  to  prevent  the  war  with  which  France  threatened  us. 
My  first  idea  was  to  retire  from  the  service,  because,  after  all  the 
insolent  challenges  which  had  gone  before,  I  perceived  in  this  ex- 
torted submission  a  humiliation  of  Germany  for  which  I  did  not 
desire  to  be  responsible.  This  impression  of  a  wound  to  our  sense 
of  national  honor  by  the  compulsory  withdrawal  so  dominated  me 
that  I  had  already  decided  to  announce  my  retirement  at  Ems.  I 
considered  this  humiliation  before  France  and  her  swaggering  dem- 
onstrations as  worse  than  that  of  Olmiitz.     .     .     . 

"  Having  decided  to  resign,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  which 


418  GERMANY 

1870 

Roon  made  against  it,  I  invited  him  and  Moltke  to  dine  with  me 
alone  on  the  13th,  and  communicated  to  them  at  table  my  views  and 
projects  for  doing  so.  Both  were  greatly  depressed,  and  reproached 
me  indirectly  with  selfishly  availing  myself  of  my  greater  facility 
for  withdrawing  from  service.  I  maintained  the  position  that  I 
could  not  offer  up  my  sense  of  honor  to  politics,  that  both  of  them, 
being  professional  soldiers,  and  consequently  without  freedom  of 
choice,  need  not  take  the  same  point  of  view  as  a  responsible  foreign 
minister.  During  our  conversation  I  was  informed  that  a  telegram 
from  Ems,  in  cipher,  if  I  recollect  rightly,  of  about  two  hyndred 
*  groups,*  was  being  deciphered.  When  the  copy  was  handed  to 
me  it  showed  that  Abeken  had  drawn  up  and  signed  the  telegram 
at  his  Majesty's  command,  and  I  read  it  out  to  my  guests,*  whose 
dejection  was  so  great  that  they  turned  away  from  food  and  drink. 
On  a  repeated  examination  of  the  document  I  lingered  upon  the 
authorization  of  his  Majesty,  which  included  a  command,  imme- 
diately to  communicate  Benedetti's  fresh  demand  and  its  rejection 
both  to  our  ambassadors  and  to  the  press.  I  put  a  few  questions  to 
Moltke  as  to  the  extent  of  his  confidence  in  the  state  of  our  prepara- 
tions, especially  as  to  the  time  they  would  still  require  in  order  to 
meet  this  sudden  risk  of  war.  He  answered  that  if  there  was  to  be 
war  he  expected  no  advantage  to  us  by  deferring  its  outbreak ;  and 
even  if  we  should  not  be  strong  enough  at  first  to  protect  all  the 
territories  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  against  French  invasion, 

*  The  telegram,  handed  in  at  Ems  on  July  13,  1870,  at  5 130  p.  M.,  and  received 
in  Berlin  at  6.09,  ran  as  deciphered : 

"  His  Majesty  writes  to  me :  '  Count  Benedetti  spoke  to  me  on  the  prom- 
enade, in  order  to  demand  from  me,  finally  in  a  very  importunate  manner,  that 
I  should  authorize  him  to  telegraph  at  once  that  I  bound  myself  for  all  future 
time  never  again  to  give  my  consent  if  the  Hohenzollems  should  renew  their 
candidature.  I  refused  at  last  somewhat  sternly,  as  it  is  neither  right  nor  possi- 
ble to  undertake  engagements  of  this  kind  cl  tout  jamais.  Naturally  I  told  him 
that  I  had  as  yet  received  no  news,  and  as  he  was  earlier  informed  about  Paris 
and  Madrid  than  myself,  he  could  clearly  see  that  my  government  once  more 
had  no  hand  in  the  matter.'  His  Majesty  has  since  received  a  letter  from  the 
prince.  His  Majesty  having  told  Count  Benedetti  that  he  was  awaiting  news 
from  the  prince,  has  decided,  with  reference  to  the  above  demand,  upon  the  rep- 
resentation of  Count  Eulenburg  and  myself,  not  to  receive  Count  Benedetti 
again,  but  only  to  let  him  be  informed  through  an  aide-de-camp:  That  his 
Majesty  had  now  received  from  the  prince  confirmation  of  the  news  which 
Benedetti  had  already  received  from  Paris,  and  had  nothing  further  to  say  to  the 
ambassador.  His  Majesty  leaves  it  to  your  Excellency  whether  Benedetti's  fresh 
demand  and  its  rejection  should  not  be  at  once  communicated  both  to  our 
ambassadors  and  to  the  press." 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN     WAR  419 

1870 

our  preparations  would  nevertheless  soon  overtake  those  of  the 
French,  while  at  a  later  period  this  advantage  would  be  diminished ; 
he  regarded  a  rapid  outbreak  as,  on  the  whole,  more  favorable  to  us 
than  delay. 

"  In  view  of  the  attitude  of  France  our  national  sense  of  honor 
compelled  us,  in  my  opinion,  to  go  to  war;  and  if  we  did  not  act 
according  to  the  demands  of  this  feeling  we  should  lose,  when  on 
the  way  to  its  completion,  the  entire  impetus  toward  our  national 
development  won  in  1866,  while  the  German  national  feeling  south 
of  the  Main,  aroused  by  our  military  successes  of  1866,  and  shown 
by  the  readiness  of  the  southern  states  to  enter  the  alliances,  would 
have  to  grow  cold  again." 

Making  use  of  the  royal  authorization  to  publish  the  contents 
of  the  telegram,  Bismarck,  in  the  presence  of  his  two  guests,  reduced 
the  dispatch  by  striking  out  words,  but  without  adding  or  altering, 
to  an  abbreviated  form  which  had  a  more  decisive  sound.  When  he 
read  this  to  his  two  guests,  Moltke  remarked :  "  Now  it  has  a  differ- 
ent ring;  before  it  sounded  like  a  parley;  now  it  is  like  a  flourish 
in  answer  to  a  challenge."  Bismarck  rightly  calculated  that  if  he 
at  once  communicated  this  brief  form,  not  only  to  the  newspapers, 
but  also  by  telegraph  to  the  Prussian  embassies,  it  would  be  "  known 
in  Paris  before  midnight,  and  not  only  on  account  of  its  contents, 
but  also  on  account  of  the  manner  of  its  distribution,  will  have  the 
effect  of  a  red  rag  upon  the  Gallic  bull.  Fight  we  must  if  we  do  not 
want  to  act  the  part  of  the  vanquished  without  a  battle.  Success, 
however,  essentially  depends  upon  the  impressions  which  the  orig- 
ination of  the  war  makes  upon  us  and  others ;  it  is  important  that 
we  should  be  the  party  attacked,  and  this  Gallic  overweening  and 
touchiness  will  make  us,  if  we  announce  in  the  face  of  Europe,  so 
far  as  we  can  without  the  speaking-trumpet  of  the  Reichstag,  that 
we  fearlessly  meet  the  public  threats  of  France." 

This  brought  about  in  the  two  generals  a  revulsion  to  a  more 
joyous  mood.  They  suddenly  recovered  their  pleasure  in  eating 
and  drinking  and  spoke  in  a  more  cheerful  vein.  Roon  said :  "  Our 
God  of  old  lives  still  and  will  not  let  us  perish  in  disgrace."  Moltke 
so  far  relinquished  his  passive  equanimity  that,  glancing  up  joyously 
toward  the  ceiling  and  abandoning  his  usual  punctiliousness  of 
speech,  he  smote  his  hand  upon  his  breast  and  said :  "  If  I  may  but 
live  to  lead  our  armies  in  such  a  war,  then  the  devil  may  come 
directly  afterward  and  fetch  away  the  *  old  carcass/  " 


420  GERMANY 

1870 

In  Paris  the  publication  of  the  "  Ems  telegram  "  had  the  effect 
which  Bismarck  had  anticipated.  The  war  fervor  rose  to  a  white 
heat.  The  majority  of  the  cabinet,  hitherto  in  favor  of  peace,  were 
swept  away  by  the  popular  tide  and  the  clamor  from  the  streets, 
"On  to  Berlin!  "  Napoleon  himself  yielded  to  the  importunity  of 
his  ministers  and  his  wife,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  14th  signed 
the  declaration  of  war.  He  relied  on  detaching  the  southern  German 
states  from  the  Confederation,  upon  revolts  in  Hesse  and  Hanover, 
and  finally  upon  alliances  with  Austria  and  Italy.  The  French  peo- 
ple were  wild  with  excitement,  which  took  the  form  of  rejoicing. 
They  believed  that  they  were  well  prepared  for  the  struggle  and 
would  easily  overwhelm  the  arrogant  Prussians.  The  minister  of 
war  had  only  a  few  days  before  declared  in  the  chamber  that  the 
army  was  "  ready  for  any  emergency."  There  was  a  general  cry 
that  Napoleon  I.'s  birthday,  August  15,  must  be  celebrated  in 
Berlin.  But  the  German  people,  north  and  south,  rose  as  one 
man.  For  the  first  time  in  her  history  Germany  became  one  com- 
pact, national  power.  Bavarian  and  Hanoverian,  Prussian  and 
Hessian,  Saxon  and  Westphalian,  joined  hands  and  stood  side  by 
side.  The  temper  of  the  people  was  solemn,  but  inflexibly  firm. 
They  did  not  boast  of  coming  victory,  but  everyone  was  resolved  to 
die  rather  than  see  Germany  again  overrun  by  the  French. 

This  time  there  were  no  alliances.  It  was  simply  Germany  on 
one  side  and  France  on  the  other.  The  greatest  military  genius, 
since  Napoleon,  Moltke,  had  foreseen  the  war,  no  less  than  Bis- 
marck, and  was  equally  prepared.  The  designs  of  France  lay  clear, 
and  the  only  question  was  to  check  them  in  their  very  commence- 
ment. In  eleven  days  Germany  had  600,000  soldiers,  organized  in 
three  armies,  on  the  way,  and  the  French  had  not  yet  crossed  the 
frontier!  Further,  there  was  a  German  reserve  force  of  112,000, 
while  France  had  but  310,000,  all  told,  in  the  field.  By  August  2, 
when  King  William  reached  Mayence,  three  German  armies 
(General  Steinmetz  on  the  north  with  85,000  men,  Prince  Frederick 
Charles  in  the  center  with  135,000,  and  the  Crown  Prince  Frederick 
William  on  the  south  with  200,000,  stretched  from  Treves  to  Lan- 
dau, and  the  line  of  the  Rhine  was  already  safe.  On  the  same 
day  Napoleon  III.  and  his  young  son  accompanied  General  Frossard, 
with  about  25,000  men,  in  an  attack  upon  the  unfortified  frontier 
town  of  Saarbriick,  which  was  defended  by  only  1800  Uhlans  (cav- 
alry).   The  capture  of  this  little  place  was  telegraphed  to  Paris  and 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN     WAR  421 

1870 

received  with  the  wildest  rejoicings;  but  it  was  the  only  instance 
during  the  war  when  French  troops  stood  upon  German  soil — unless 
as  prisoners. 

On  August  4  the  army  of  the  crown  prince  crossed  the  French 
frontier  and  defeated  Marshal  MacMahon's  right  wing  at  Weissen- 
burg.  The  old  castle  was  stormed  and  taken  by  the  Bavarians  and 
the  French  repulsed,  after  a  loss  of  about  looo  on  each  side.  Mac- 
Mahon  concentrated  his  whole  force  and  occupied  a  strong  position 
near  the  village  of  Worth,  where  he  was  again  attacked  on  the  6th. 
The  battle  lasted  thirteen  hours  and  was  fiercely  contested.  The 
Germans  lost  io,ooo  killed  and  wounded,  the  French  8ooo  and  9000 
prisoners;  but  when  night  came  MacMahon's  defeat  turned  into  a 
panic.  Part  of  his  army  fled  toward  the  Vosges  Mountains,  part 
toward  Strasburg,  and  nearly  all  Alsatia  was  open  to  the  victorious 
Germans.  On  the  very  same  day  the  army  of  Steinmetz  stormed  the 
heights  of  Spicheren,  near  Saarbriick,  and  won  a  splendid  victory. 
This  was  followed  by  an  immediate  advance  across  the  frontier  at 
Forbach  and  the  capture  of  a  great  amount  of  supplies. 

Thus  in  less  than  three  weeks  from  the  declaration  of  war  the 
attitude  of  France  was  changed  from  the  aggressive  to  the  defen- 
sive, the  field  of  war  was  transferred  to  French  soil,  and  all  Napo- 
leon III.'s  plans  of  alliance  were  rendered  vain.  Leaving  a  division 
of  Baden  troops  to  invest  Strasburg,  the  crown  prince  pressed  for- 
ward with  his  main  army  and  in  a  few  days  reached  Nancy,  in  Lor- 
raine. The  armies  of  the  north  and  center  advanced  at  the  same 
time,  defeated  Bazaine  on  August  14  at  Courcelles,  and  forced 
him  to  fall  back  upon  Metz.  He  thereupon  determined,  after 
garrisoning  the  forts  of  Metz,  to  retreat  still  further,  in  order  to 
unite  with  General  Trochu,  who  was  organizing  a  new  army  at 
Chalons,  and  with  the  remnants  of  MacMahon's  forces.  Moltke 
detected  his  plans  at  once,  and  the  army  of  Frederick  Charles  was 
thereupon  hurried  across  the  Moselle  to  get  into  his  rear  and  prevent 
the  junction. 

The  struggle  between  the  two  commenced  on  the  i6th,  near  the 
village  of  Mars-la-Tour,  where  Bazaine,  with  180,000  men,  endeav- 
ored to  force  his  way  past  Frederick  Charles,  who  had  but  120,000, 
the  other  two  German  armies  being  still  in  the  rear.  For  six  hours 
the  latter  held  his  position  under  a  murderous  fire,  until  three  corps 
arrived  to  reinforce  him.  Bazaine  claimed  a  victory,  although  he 
lost  the  southern  and  shorter  road  to  Verdun ;  but  Moltke  none  the 


4t£  GERMANY 

1870 

less  gained  his  object.     The  losses  were  about  I7,cxx)  killed  and 
wounded  on  each  side. 

After  a  single  day  of  rest  the  struggle  was  resumed  on  the  i8th, 
when  the  still  bloodier  and  more  desperate  battle  of  Gravelotte  was 
fought  The  Germans  now  had  about  2CX),ooo  soldiers  together, 
while  Bazaine  had  i8o,ocx),  with  a  great  advantage  in  his  position 
on  a  high  plateau  just  west  of  Metz.  In  this  battle  the  former 
situation  of  the  combatants  was  changed.  The  Germans,  who  had 
marched  past  Metz,  faced  eastward,  the  French  westward — a  cir- 
cumstance which  made  defeat  more  disastrous  to  either  side.  The 
strife  began  in  the  morning  and  continued  until  darkness  put  an 
end  to  it.  The  French  right  wing  yielded  after  a  succession  of 
heroic  assaults,  but  the  center  and  left  wing  resisted  gallantly  until 
the  very  close  of  the  battle.  It  was  a  hard-won  victory,  adding 
20,000  killed  and  wounded  to  the  German  losses,  but  it  cut  off 
Bazaine's  retreat  and  forced  him  to  take  shelter  behind  the  fortifi- 
cations of  Metz,  the  siege  of  which,  by  Prince  Frederick  Charles 
with  200,000  men,  immediately  commenced,  while  the  rest  of  the 
German  army  marched  on  to  attack  MacMahon  and  Trochu  at 
Chalons. 

There  could  be  no  question  as  to  the  bravery  of  the  French 
troops  in  these  two  battles.     In  Paris  the  government  and  people 
persisted  in  considering  them  victories,  until  the  imprisonment  of 
Bazaine's  army  proved  that  their  result  was  defeat.     Then  a  wild 
cry  of  rage  rang  through  the  land.    France  had  been  betrayed,  and 
by  whom,  if  not  by  the  German  residents  in  Paris  and  other  cities  ? ; 
The  latter,  more  than  100,000  in  number,  including  women  audi 
children,  were  expelled  from  the  country.    The  French  people,  not] 
the  government,  were  responsible  for  this  act.     The  latter  was 
barely  able  to  protect  the  Germans  from  worse  violence. 

MacMahon  had  in  the  meantime  organized  a  new  army  of] 
125,000  men  in  the  camp  at  Chalons,  where,  it  was  supposed,  he^ 
would  dispute  the  advance  on  Paris.     This  was  his  plan,  in  fact, 
and  he  was  with  difficulty  persuaded  by  Marshal  Palikao,  the  min-j 
ister  of  war,  to  give  it  up  and  undertake  a  rapid  march  up  the 
Meuse,  along  the  Belgian  frontier,  to  relieve  Bazaine  in  Metz. 
On  August  23  the  crown  prince,  who  had  already  passed  beyond  i 
Verdun   on   his  way  to  Chalons,   received   intelligence  that   the' 
French  had  left  the  latter  place.     Detachments  of  Uhlans,  sent 
out  in  all  haste  to  reconnoiter,  soon  brought  the  astonishing  news 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN     WAR  423 

1870 

that  MacMahon  was  marching  rapidly  northward.  General 
Moltke  detected  his  plan,  which  could  only  be  thwarted  by  the 
most  vigorous  movement  on  the  part  of  the  German  forces.  The 
front  of  the  advance  was  instantly  changed,  reformed  on  the  right 
flank,  and  all  pushed  northward  by  forced  marches. 

MacMahon  had  the  outer  and  longer  line,  so  that,  in  spite 
of  the  rapidity  of  his  movements,  he  was  met  by  the  extreme  right 
wing  of  the  German  army  on  August  28,  at  Stenay  on  the  Meuse. 
Being  here  held  in  check,  fresh  divisions  were  hurried  against 
him,  several  small  engagements  followed,  and  on  the  31st  he  was 
defeated  at  Beaumont  by  the  Crown  Prince  of  Saxony.  The 
German  right  was  thereupon  pushed  beyond  the  Meuse  and  occu- 
pied the  passes  of  the  forest  of  Ardennes,  leading  into  Belgium. 
Meanwhile  the  German  left,  under  Frederick  William,  was  rapidly 
driving  back  the  French  right  and  cutting  off  the  road  to  Paris. 
Nothing  was  left  to  MacMahon  but  to  concentrate  his  forces  and 
retire  upon  the  small  fortified  city  of  Sedan.  Napoleon  III.,  who 
had  left  Metz  before  the  battle  of  Mars-la-Tour,  and  did  not  dare 
to  return  to  Paris  at  such  a  time,  was  with  him. 

The  Germans,  now  numbering  200,000,  lost  no  time  in  plant- 
ing batteries  on  all  the  heights  which  surround  the  valley  of  the 
Meuse  at  Sedan,  like  the  rim  of  an  irregular  basin.  MacMahon 
had  112,000  men,  and  his  only  chance  of  success  was  to  break 
through  the  wider  ring  which  enclosed  him  at  some  point  where  it 
was  weak.  The  battle  began  at  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
September  i.  The  principal  struggle  was  for  the  possession  of  the 
villages  of  Bazeilles  and  Illy  and  the  heights  of  Daigny.  Mac- 
Mahon was  severely  wounded  soon  after  the  fight  began ;  the  com- 
mand was  then  given  to  General  Ducrot  and  afterward  to  General 
Wimpffen,  who  knew  neither  the  ground  nor  the  plan  of  operations. 
The  German  artillery  fire  was  fearful,  and  the  French  infantry 
could  not  stand  before  it,  while  their  cavalry  was  almost  annihilated 
during  the  afternoon  in  a  succession  of  charges  on  the  Prussian 
infantry. 

By  three  o'clock  it  was  evident  that  the  French  army  was  de- 
feated. Driven  back  from  every  strong  point  which  was  held  in 
the  morning,  hurled  together  in  a  demoralized  mass,  nothing  was 
left  but  surrender.  General  Lauriston  appeared  with  a  white  flag 
on  the  walls  of  Sedan,  and  the  terrible  fire  of  the  German  artillery 
ceased.    Napoleon  III.  wrote  to  King  William :  "  Not  having  been 


4£4  GERMANY 

1870 

able  to  die  at  the  head  of  my  troops,  I  lay  my  sword  at  your 
Majesty's  feet,"  and  retired  to  the  castle  of  Bellevue,  outside  of 
the  city.  Early  the  next  morning  he  had  an  interview  with  Bis- 
marck at  the  little  village  of  Donchery,  and  then  formally  surren- 
dered to  the  king  at  Bellevue. 

During  the  battle  25,000  French  soldiers  had  been  taken  pris- 
oners. The  remaining  83,000,  including  4000  officers,  surrendered 
on  September  2;  400  cannon,  70  mitrailleuses,  and  iioo  horses 
also  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Germans.  Never  before  in  hi'story 
had  such  a  host  been  taken  captive.  The  news  of  this  overwhelm- 
ing victory  electrified  the  world.  Germany  rang  with  rejoicings, 
and  her  emigranted  sons  in  America  and  Australia  joined  in  the 
jubilee.  The  people  said:  "It  will  be  another  Seven  Weeks* 
War,"  and  this  hope  might  possibly  have  been  fulfilled  but  for  the 
sudden  political  change  in  France.  On  the  4th  (two  days  after 
the  surrender)  a  revolution  broke  out  in  Paris,  the  Empress  Eugenie 
and  the  members  of  her  government  fled,  and  a  republic  was  de- 
clared. The  French,  blaming  Napoleon  alone  for  their  tremendous 
national  humiliation,  believed  that  they  could  yet  recover  their 
lost  ground ;  and  when  one  of  their  prominent  leaders,  the  states- 
man Jules  Favre,  declared  that  "  not  one  foot  of  soil,  not  one  stone 
of  a  fortress  "  should  be  yielded  to  Germany,  the  popular  enthusi- 
asm knew  no  bounds. 

But  it  was  too  late.  The  great  superiority  of  the  military 
organization  of  Prussia  had  been  manifested  against  the  regular 
troops  of  France,  and  it  could  not  be  expected  that  new  armies 
of  volunteers,  however  brave  and  devoted,  would  be  more  success- 
ful. The  army  of  the  crown  prince  marched  on  toward  Paris 
without  opposition,  and  on  September  17  came  in  sight  of  the 
city,  which  was  defended  by  an  outer  circle  of  jxnverful  detached 
fortresses,  constructed  during  the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe.  Gen- 
eral Trochu  was  made  military  governor,  with  70,000  men — 
the  last  remnant  of  the  regular  army — under  his  command.  He 
had  barely  time  to  garrison  and  strengthen  the  forts  when  the  city 
was  surrounded  and  the  siege  commenced. 

For  two  months  thereafter  the  interest  of  the  war  is  centered 
upon  sieges.  The  fortified  city  of  Toul,  in  Lorraine,  surrendered 
on  September  23,  Strasburg,  after  a  six  weeks*  siege,  on  the 
28th,  and  thus  the  two  lines  of  railway  communication  between 
Germany  and  Paris  were  secured.    All  the  German  reserves  were 


EXPLANATION  OF   THE  DOCUMENT 

Left.  Important  parts  of  the  preliminary  treaty  of  peace  signed  at 
Versailles  on  February  26,  18/ 1,  are  the  end  of  Article  I.,  wherein  the 
transfer  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  including  the  fortress  of  Metz,  besides  Marie- 
aux-chcnes  and  Vionville  to  Germany,  and  the  retention  of  the  fortress 
of  Bclfort  by  France  (conceded  to  Thiers),  is  especially  mentioned ;  and 
the  beginning  of  Article  II.,  zvherein  France  agrees  to  the  payment  of 
5  milliards  of  francs  ($1,000,000,000)  in  place  of  the  6  milliards  as 
originally  insisted  on  by  Germany.  The  writing  is  by  the  hand  of  some 
Government  clerk.  The  last  page  of  the  voluminous  preliminary  treaty 
of  peace  contains,  in  addition  to  the  last  paragraph  of  the  convention, 
the  signatures  of  Bismarck  (including  his  seal),  Thiers  and  Favre; 
and,  underneath,  the  acknozvledgnient  of  accession  to  the  empire  by  the 
south  German  states,  written  in  the  hand  of  Count  Bray:  Bavaria  (Count 
von  Bray-Steinburg),  Wiirtemberg  (Baron  von  Waechter  and  Mitt- 
nacht),  and  Baden   (Jolly). 

Right.  As  the  most  important  articles,  concerning  Alsace-Lorraine, 
Metz,  Belfort  and  the  ivar  indemnity,  are  not  mentioned  in  the  Frankfort 
treaty  of  peace,  but  are  only  found  in  the  preliminaries  of  Versailles 
(see  above),  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  definitive  peace  protocol 
remain  of  most  interest. 


WORDING    OF    THE    ORIGINAL  ENGLISH    TRANSLATION 
Left.  Introduction   of   the  Preliminaries 

Article  I.  Article  I. 

(La  fronticre  telle  qu'elle  vient  d'etre  (The    boundary   as   described   hereto- 

decrite,  se  trouve  marquee  en  vert  sur  fore  is  indicated  in  green  on  two  identi- 

deux  excmplaires  conformes  de  la  carte  cat  maps  of  the  District  of  Alsace,  which 

du   territoire  formant   le  Gouvernement  are   the   publications   of   the    geographic 

general   d'Alsace,   publice    a   Berlin,    en  and  statistical  department  of   the   Gen- 

septembre,  1870,  par  la  division  geogra-  eral  Staff,  Berlin,  1870,  and  a  print  of 

phique     et    sfatistique     de     I'ctat-major  which  is  herexvith  attached  to  each  copy 

general,    et    dont    un    exemplaire    sera  of  the  treaty  of  peace.) 

joint  a  chacune  des  deux  expeditions  du  By  mutual  consent  the  above  depicted 

present  traite.)  boundary    has    suffered    the    following 

Toutefois  le  trace  indique  a  subi  les  changes    in    the    department    heretofore 

modifications  suivantes   de   I' accord   des  knozcn  by  the  r.ante  of  Moselle:  the  vil- 

deux   parties   contractantes:   Dans   I'an-  lages  Marie-aux-chcnes,  near  Saint  Pri- 

cien   department  de  la  Moselle,  les  vil-  vat-la-Montagne,  and  Vionville,  tvest  of 

lages  de  Marie-aux-chenes.  prcs  de   St.  RezonviUe,  are  transferred  to  Germany. 

Privat-la-Montagne,   et   de    Vionville,   a  On  the  other  hand  the  city  and  fortress 

I'ovcst    de    Reconville,    seront    cedes    a  of  Belfort,  including  a  territory  the  di- 

I'Allemagne.     Par  contre  la  ville  et  les  mensions    of    which    will    be    definitely 

fortifications   de   Belfort   resteront  a   la  agreed  to  later  on,  remain  with  France. 
France  avec  un  rayon  qui  sera  determine 
ultcrieitrement. 

Article  II.  Article  II. 

La  France  paiera  a  Sa  Majeste  I'Em-  France  will  pay   to   his  majesty,  the 

pereur  d'Allemagne   la   somme  de   cinq  Emt>eror    of    Germany,    the    sum    of   5 

milliards  de  francs.  milliards  of  francs. 

(Le  paicmcnt  d'au  moins  un  milliard  (Payment  of  at  least  one  milliard  of 

de  francs  aura  lieu  dans  le  courant  de  francs  to  be  made  zvithin  the  first  year, 

I'annee   1871,  et   celui  de   tout   le  reste  and  the  remainder  of  the  debt  within  a 


de  la  dctte  dans  ttn  espace  dc  trots 
annccs  a  partir  dc  la  ratification  des 
prcscntcs. 

Article  III. 
L'czacuation    des    territoircs    franqais 
occupes  par  tes  troupes  allemandes  com- 
menccra.     .     .    . 


period  of  three  years  from   the  day  of 
ratification. 

Article  III. 
The    ez-acuation    of    French    territory 
occupied  by  German  troops  begins  .    .   . 


En    foi    de    quot    ics    soussignes    ont 
revctu  le  present  traite  preliminaire  de 
leurs  signatures  et  de  leurs  sceaux. 
Fait  a  I  'crsaillcs  le  26  fevrier,  1871. 
V.   Bismarck.  A.    Thiers, 

Jules  Favre. 
Les  Royaumes  de  Baviere  et  de  IVurt- 
temberg  et  le  Grand  Duche  de  Bade 
ayant  pris  part  a  la  guerre  actuellc 
comme  allies  de  la  Prusse  et  faisant 
panic  maintenant  de  I'Fmpire  gcrman- 
ique,  les  soussignes  adherent  a  la  pre- 
sente  convention  au  nom  de  leurs  sou- 
verains  respectifs. 

Versailles,  le  26  fevrier,  1871. 
etc.   de   Bray-Steinburg 
Br.  dc  Waechter 
Mittnacht. 
Jolly. 


Right 


To  attest  the  above  the  undersigned 
have  signed,  ar.d  attached  their  seals  to 
this  preliminary  treaty. 

Dated  at  I'ersailles,  Feb.  26,  1871. 
V.  Bismarck.        A(dolphe)   Thiers. 
Jules  Favre. 
As    the    Kingdoms    of    Bavaria    and 
Wiirtembcrg   and    the   duchy   of  Baden 
participated  in   the  present  tear  as  con- 
federates of  Prussia,  and  at  present  are 
a  part  of  the  German  Empire,  the  un- 
dersigned  joined    the  above   convention 
in    the    name    of   their  respective   sov- 
ereigns. 

Versailles,  February  26,  1871. 
Count      von      Bray-Steinburg 
Baron  von  Waechter 
Mittnacht 
Jolly 


Le  Prince  Othon  de  Bismarck- 
Schoenhausen,  Chancelier  de  I'Empire 
germanique,  le  Comte  Harry  d'Aruim, 
Envoye  extraordinaire  et  Ministre  pleni- 
potcntiaire  de  Sa  Majeste  I'Empereur 
d'Allcntagne,  prcs  du  St.  Siege: 
slipulant  au  nom  dc  Sa  Majeste  I'Em- 
pereur d'Allemagne,  d'un  cote,  dc  I'autre 
Monsieur  Jules  Favre,  Ministre  des  af- 
faires ctragcres  de  la  Rcpublique  fran- 
(oisc.  Monsieur  August  in  Thomas  Joseph 
Pouyer-Qucrtier,  Ministre  des  finances 
de  la  Rcpublique  fran^aise.  et  Monsieur 
Marc  Thomas  Eugene  de  Goulard.  Mcm- 
bre  de  I'Assemblce  nationalc,  stipulant 
a-i  nom  de  la  Rcpublique  franqaise 
(s'etant.     .     .     . 


Prince  Otto  von  Bismarck-Schiiii- 
hausen.  Chancellor  of  the  German  Em- 
pire, Count  Harry  von  Arnim,  Minister 
plenipotentiary  and  Envoy  extraordinary 
of  his  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  Germany, 
at  the  Holy  See  stipulate  on  one  hand, 
on  the  other  Mr.  Jules  Favre,  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  French  Re- 
public, Mr.  Augustin  Thomas  Joseph 
Pouyer-Quertier,  Minister  of  Finance 
of  the  French  Republic,  and  Mr.  Marc 
Thomas  Eugene  de  Goulard.  Member 
of  the  National  Assembly,  stipulate  in 
the  name  of  the  French  Republic    (.  .    . 


.  .  .  on  the  part  of  the  first,  and 
on  the  part  of  the  other  through  the 
National  Assembly  and  the  Execulix'C 
head  of  the  French  Republic)  are  to  be 
exchanged  at  Frankfort  tvithin  the 
period  of  ten  days  or  sooner  if  possible. 

To  attest  this  the  plenipotentiaries 
haz'C  signed  and  placed  the  impress  of 
their  coat  of  arms  beside  it. 

Pone  at  Frankfort  O/M.,  May  10, 
1871, 

V.  Bismarck       Jules  Favre 

Arnim  Pouyer-Quertier 

E(u'ghie)dc  Goulard 

'  1  lie  fiiistiikc  of  the  copyist  in  writing  plutot   is  corrected  by   lite  erasure  plus   tot. 

AFTER    THE    ORIGINAL    DOCUMENT    IN    THE    CENTRAL 
BUREAU  OF  FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  AT  BERLIN 


.  .  .  d'un  cote,  et  de  I'autre  par 
r.tssemblee  nationale  et  par  le  Chef 
du  Potivoir  execulif  de  la  Rcpublique 
frant^aisc)  scront  echangccs  a  Francfort 
dans  le  dclai  de  dix  jours  ou  plus  tot  * 
si  faire  se  pent. 

En  foi  de  quoi  les  Plcnipotentiaires 
respectifs  font  signe  et  y  ont  appose 
le  cachet  dc  leurs  armes. 

Fait  (i  Francfort  le  10  mat,  1871. 
V.  Bismarck        Jules  Favre. 
Arnim  Pouyer-Quertier. 

E.  de  Goulard. 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN     WAR  425 

1870-1871 

called  into  the  field,  until  finally  more  than  8cxd,ooo  soldiers  stood 
upon  French  soil.  After  two  or  three  attempts  to  break  through  the 
lines,  Bazaine  surrendered  Metz  on  October  28.  It  was  another 
event  without  a  parallel  in  military  history.  Three  marshals  of 
France,  6000  officers,  145,000  unwounded  soldiers,  73  eagles,  854 
pieces  of  artillery,  and  400,000  chassepot  rifles  were  surrendered  to 
Prince  Frederick  Charles ! 

After  these  successes  the  capture  of  Paris  became  only 
a  question  of  time.  Although  the  republican  leader,  Gambetta, 
escaped  from  the  city  in  a  balloon,  and  by  his  fiery  eloquence  aroused 
the  people  of  central  and  southern  France,  every  plan  for  raising 
the  siege  of  Paris  failed.  The  French  volunteers  were  formed  into 
three  armies — that  of  the  North,  under  Faidherbe;  of  the  Loire, 
under  Aurelles  de  Paladine  (afterward  under  Chanzy  and  Bour- 
baki)  ;  and  of  the  East,  under  Keratry.  Besides,  a  great  many 
companies  of  franctireurs,  or  independent  sharpshooters,  were 
organized  to  interrupt  the  German  communications,  and  they  gave 
much  more  trouble  than  the  larger  armies.  About  the  end  of 
November  a  desperate  attempt  was  made  to  raise  the  siege  of 
Paris.  General  Paladine  marched  from  Orleans  with  150,000  men, 
while  Trochu  tried  to  break  the  lines  of  the  besiegers  on  the  eastern 
side.  The  latter  was  repelled,  after  a  bloody  fight;  the  former 
was  attacked  at  Beaune  la  Roland  by  Prince  Frederick  Charles, 
with  only  half  the  number  of  troops,  and  most  signally  defeated. 
The  Germans  then  carried  on  the  winter  campaign  with  the  greatest 
vigor,  both  in  the  northern  provinces  and  along  the  Loire,  and 
Trochu,  with  his  400,000  men,  made  no  further  serious  effort  to 
save  Paris. 

Frederick  Charles  took  Orleans  on  December  5,  advanced 
to  Tours,  and  finally,  in  a  six  days'  battle,  early  in  January,  1871, 
at  Le  Mans,  literally  cut  the  army  of  the  Loire  to  pieces.  The 
French  lost  60,000  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners.  Faidherbe 
was  defeated  in  the  north  a  week  afterward,  and  the  only  resistance 
left  was  in  Burgundy,  where  Garibaldi  (who  hastened  to  France 
after  the  republic  was  proclaimed)  had  been  successful  in  two  or 
three  small  engagements,  and  was  now  replaced  by  Bourbaki.  The 
object  of  the  latter  was  to  relieve  the  fortress  of  Belfort,  then  be- 
sieged by  General  Werder,  who  with  43,000  men  awaited  his 
coming  in  a  strong  position  among  the  mountains.  Notwithstand- 
ing Bourbaki  had  more  than  100,000  men,  he  was  forced  to  retreat 


426  GERMANY 

1871 

after  a  fight  of  three  days,  and  then  General  Manteuffel,  who  had 
been  sent  in  all  haste  to  strengthen  Werder,  followed  him  so  closely 
that  on  February  i,  all  retreat  being  cut  off,  his  whole  army  oi 
83,000  men  crossed  the  Swiss  frontier,  and  after  suffering  terribly 
among  the  snowy  passes  of  the  Jura,  were  disarmed,  fed,  and 
clothed  by  the  Swiss  government  and  people.  Bourbaki  attempted 
to  commit  suicide,  but  only  inflicted  a  severe  wound,  from  which 
he  afterward  recovered. 

This  retreat  into  Switzerland  was  almost  the  last  event  of  the 
Seven  Months'  War,  as  it  might  be  called,  and  it  was  as  remarkable 
as  the  surrenders  of  Sedan  and  Metz.  All  power  of  defense  was 
now  broken.  France  was  completely  at  the  mercy  of  her  con- 
querors. On  January  28,  after  long  negotiations  between  Bis- 
marck and  Jules  Favre,  the  forts  around  Paris  capitulated  and 
Trochu's  army  became  prisoners  of  war.  The  city  was  not  occu- 
pied, but,  for  the  sake  of  the  half-starved  population,  provisions 
were  allowed  to  enter.  The  armistice,  originally  declared  for  three 
weeks,  was  prolonged  until  March  i,  when  the  preliminaries  of 
peace  were  agreed  upon  and  hostilities  came  to  an  end. 

By  the  final  treaty  of  peace,  which  was  concluded  at  Frank- 
fort on  May  10,  1871,  France  gave  up  Alsatia  and  eastern  Lor- 
raine, including  Metz  and  Thionville  to  Germany.  The  terri- 
tory thus  transferred  comprised  three  French  departments  and 
contained  about  5500  square  miles  and  1,580,000  inhabitants.^ 
P' ranee  also  agreed  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  five  thousand  millions 
of  francs,  in  installments ;  certain  of  her  departments  were  occupied 
by  German  troops,  and  only  evacuated  by  degrees,  as  the  payments 
were  made.  France  was  allowed  to  retain  Belfort  and  its  territory 
on  account  of  the  heroic  defense  which  its  garrison  had  sustained. 
Thus  ended  this  astonishing  war,  during  which  17  great  battles 
and  156  minor  engagements  had  been  fought,  22  fortified  places 
taken,  385,000  soldiers  (including  11,360  officers)  made  prison- 
ers, and  7200  cannon  and  600,000  stand  of  arms  acquired  by 
Germany.  There  is  no  such  crushing  defeat  of  a  strong  nation 
recorded  in  history. 

Even  before  the  capitulation  of  Paris  the  natural  political  re- 

•This  territory  of  Alsace-Lorraine  was  not  annexed  to  Prussia,  but  to  the 
newly  formed  German  Empire.  It  became  an  "imperial  territory"  (Reichs' 
land)  and  was  put  directly  under  the  management  of  the  central  government. 
It  has  no  vote  in  the  Upper  House  (Bundesrath),  but  sends  fifteen  elected 
representatives  to  the  Lower  House  {Reichstag). 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN     WAR  427 

1871 

suit  of  the  victory  was  secured  to  Germany.  The  cooperation  of 
the  three  southern  states  in  the  war  removed  the  last  barrier  to 
a  union  of  all  except  Austria  under  the  lead  of  Prussia.  That 
which  the  great  majority  of  the  people  desired  was  also  satisfactory 
to  the  princes :  the  "  North  German  Confederation  "  was  enlarged 
and  transformed  into  the  "  German  Empire  "  by  including  Bavaria, 
Wiirtemberg,  and  Baden.  It  was  agreed  that  the  young  king  of 
Bavaria,  Ludwig  II.,  as  occupying  the  most  important  position 
among  the  rulers  of  the  three  separate  states,  should  ask  King  Will- 
iam to  assume  the  imperial  dignity,  with  the  condition  that  it 
should  be  hereditary  in  his  family.  The  other  princes  and  the  free 
cities  united  in  the  call;  and  on  January  i8,  1871,  in  the  grand 
hall  of  the  palace  of  Versailles,  where  Richelieu  and  Louis  XIV. 
and  Napoleon  I.  had  plotted  their  invasions  of  Germany,  the  king 
formally  accepted  the  title  of  emperor,  and  the  German  states  were 
at  last  united  as  one  compact,  indivisible  nation. 

The  Emperor  William  I.  concluded  his  proclamation  to  the  Ger- 
man people  with  these  words :  "  May  God  permit  us,  and  our 
successors  to  the  imperial  crown,  to  give  at  all  times  increase  to 
the  German  Empire,  not  by  the  conquests  of  war,  but  by  the  goods 
and  gifts  of  peace,  in  the  path  of  national  prosperity,  freedom,  and 
morality !  "  After  the  end  of  the  war  was  assured  he  left  Paris 
and  passed  in  a  swift  march  of  triumph  through  Germany  to  Berlin, 
where  the  popular  enthusiasm  was  extravagantly  exhibited.  France 
had  undertaken  the  war  of  1 870-1 871  to  undo  the  work  of  1866. 
The  result  had  been  exactly  the  opposite  of  what  she  had  hoped  and 
expected.  Prussia  emerged  from  the  war  not  weakened  or  broken, 
but  immeasurably  strengthened.  She  had  also  accomplished  what 
she  had  long  striven  for — the  union  of  Germany  into  a  solid,  well- 
knit  nation,  in  which  Prussia  was  the  predominant  member  and 
from  which  Austria  was  excluded.  This  new  German  Empire 
which  Bismarck  more  than  any  other  one  man  had  helped  to  create, 
had  all  the  vigor  and  strength  of  youth.  It  was  already  predominant 
in  the  diplomatic  world.  Bismarck  might  well  have  retired  from 
public  life  with  the  reputation  of  the  greatest  statesman  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  But  he  was  not  content.  He  wished  to  make 
sure  that  the  constitution  of  the  new  empire  would  work  satisfac- 
torily, and  he  wished  Germany  to  stride  forward  in  economic  and 
material  well-being  until  she  should  be  as  predominant  in  the  com- 
mercial world  as  she  already  was  in  the  diplomatic 


Chapter    XL 

THE  GERMAN  EMPIRE.    1871-1910 

THE  events  of  the  period  from  1866  to  1870  had  entirely 
changed  the  political  face  of  Germany.  Instead  of  a 
league  of  loosely  united  states,  as  in  the  confederation  of 
181 5,  or  an  incomplete  unity,  such  as  had  existed  after  1866,  when 
Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  Hesse,  and  Baden  were  still  independent 
states  refusing  to  enter  the  North  German  Confederation,  there  had 
been  formed  in  consequence  of  the  war  of  1870  a  single  empire,  not 
weak  and  broken  by  internal  dissension,  as  had  been  the  old  confed- 
eration, but  strong  and  influential,  and  raised  by  virtue  of  its  vic- 
tories and  the  genius  of  its  statesmen  to  the  position  of  leader  among 
the  European  powers.  But  the  new  Germany  bore  indelible  marks 
of  the  conditions  from  which  it  had  sprung  and  the  circumstances 
that  had  attended  its  establishment.  The  system  of  universal  mili- 
tary service  and  the  attainment  of  unity  by  force  of  arms  gave  to  the 
state  a  military  character  and  increased  its  interest  in  military  af- 
fairs. The  supremacy  of  Prussia  both  politically  and  territorially, 
and  the  fact  that  her  armies  had  led  the  way  to  victory,  made  it  in- 
evitable that  she  should  force  her  methods  upon  Germany,  and 
that  Bismarck,  who  had  controlled  her  destinies  since  1862  and 
become  both  president  of  the  Prussian  ministry  and  chancellor  of 
the  empire,  should  be  the  master  of  the  new  policy. 

The  empire  founded  in  1871  is  a  federal  state  based  in  the 
main  on  a  national  foundation,  although  there  are  included  within 
its  limits  Danes,  Alsatians,  and  Poles,  who  form  a  restless  party 
of  opposition.  The  constitution,  being  drawn  up  largely  by  Bis- 
marck, who  knew  precisely  what  he  wanted  and  the  limitations 
imposed  upon  him,  creates  a  powerful  military  state.  As  might 
be  expected,  the  clauses  on  most  subjects  are  comparatively  meager ; 
but  those  on  the  army,  the  navy,  and  the  revenue  are  drawn  up 
with  a  "  minuteness  befitting  the  by-laws  of  a  commercial  com- 
pany." The  Prussian  military  system  is  that  which  is  adopted  and 
made  uniform  in  the  other  states, of  the  empire;    there  is  but  a 

438 


THE     EMPIRE 


429 


1871-1910 


single  army  for  the  empire,  and  it  is  under  the  command  of  the 
emperor,  who  must  always  be  the  king  of  Prussia.  He  selects  the 
generals,  but  leaves  to  the  individual  states  the  appointment  of  the 
inferior  officers  and  the  routine  management  of  the  troops. 

The  empire  is  composed  of  twenty-five  states,  exclusive  of  the 
imperial  provinces  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  of  very  different  size 
and  importance,  all  the  way  from  the  kingdom  of  Prussia,  with 
a  population  of  35,000,000  and  an  area  of  134,000  square  miles, 
down  to  the  principality  of  Schaumburg-Lippe,  with  less  than  50,000 
souls  and  131  square  miles  !^  Prussia,  owing  to  her  preponder- 
ating size,  has  several  special  privileges  which  give  her  still  further 
controlling  power  in  the  empire.  Amendments  to  the  constitution, 
although  requiring  only  an  ordinary  majority  in  the  Reichstag,  are 

1  The  following  table  shows  the  different  states  composing  the  German 
Empire,  their  area  and  population  in  1900,  and  their  representation  in  each  branch 
of  the  legislature,  which  is  described  later: 


States  of  the  Empire 


Kingdom  of  Prussia 

Kingdom  of  Bavaria 

Kingdom  of  Saxony 

Kingdom  of  Wiirtemberg 

Grand-Duchy  of  Baden 

Grand-Duchy  of  Hesse 

Grand-Duchy  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin 

Grand-Duchy  of  Saxe- Weimar 

Grand-Duchy  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz. . 

Grand-Duchy  of  Oldenburg 

Duchy  of  Brunswick 

Duchy  of  Saxe-Meiningen 

Duchy  of  Saxe-Altenburg 

Duchy  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 

Duchy  of  Anhalt 

Principality  of  Schwarzburg-Sondershausen 
Pruicipality  of  Schwarzburg-Kudolstadt 

Principality  of  Waldeck 

Principality  of  Reuss  Aelterer  Linie 

Principality  of  Ruess  Jungerer  Linie. . .  . 

Principality  of  Schaumburg-Lippe 

Principality  of  Lippe 

Free  town  of  Liibeck 

Free  town  of  Bremen 

Free  town  of  Hamburg 

Reichsland  of  Alsace-Lorraine 

Total 


Area 
English 
iq.  miles 


134,603 
29,282 
5,787 
7,528 
5,821 
2,965 
5,135 
1,388 

1,131 

2,479 
1,424 
953 
511 
755 
906 

363 
333 
433 
319 
122 

131 
469 

115 

99 

158 

5,600 


208,830 


Population 
Dec.  1,1900 


34,472,509 

6,176,057 

4,202,216 

2,169,480 

1,867,944 

1,119,893 

607,770 

362,873 

102,602 

399,180 

464,333 

250,731 

194,914 

229,550 

316,085 

80,898 

93,059 
57,918 
68,396 

139,210 
43,132 

138,952 
96,775 

224,882 

768,349 
1,719,470 


56,367,178 


Number  of 
Members  in 
Bundesratti 


17 

6 

4 
4 
3 
3 
2 


58 


Number  of 
Deputies  in 
Reichstag 


236 
48 
23 
17 
14 

9 
6 

3 
I 

3 
3 
2 

I 
2 
2 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
3 
15 


397 


430  GERMANY 

1871-1910 

defeated  in  the  Bundesrath  if  fourteen  negative  votes  are  thrown 
against  them,  and  as  Prussia  has  seventeen  votes  in  that  body  she 
has  an  absolute  veto  on  all  changes  of  the  constitution.  Besides 
this,  it  is  expressly  provided  that  in  the  case  of  all  bills  relating  to 
the  army,  the  navy,  or  the  system  of  raising  or  collecting  taxes, 
the  vote  of  Prussia  in  the  Bundesrath  is  decisive  if  cast  in  favor 
of  maintaining  the  existing  institutions.  Prussia  has  also  the  cast- 
ing vote  in  case  of  a  tie  in  the  Bundesrath,  and  is  given  the  chair- 
manship of  all  the  standing  committees  of  that  body. 

The  legislature  consists  of  two  houses:  the  Reichstag,  or 
House  of  Representatives,  and  the  Bundesrath,  or  Federal  Council. 
The  former  is  an  elected  chamber,  created  for  the  sake  of  stimu- 
lating national  sentiment  and  enlisting  popular  support  as  against 
the  local  and  dynastic  influences  which  were  the  curse  of  the  old 
confederation,  and  which  still  have  free  play  in  the  Bundesrath. 
The  397  members  of  the  Reichstag  are  elected  for  five  years  by 
direct  universal  suffrage  and  secret  ballot.  Voters  must  be  twenty- 
five  years  old,  and  not  in  active  military  service,  paupers,  or  other- 
wise disqualified.  The  members  are  chosen  in  single  electoral 
districts  fixed  by  imperial  law.  These  had  originally  a  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants  apiece,  but  they  have  not  been  revised  for 
more  than  a  score  of  years,  and  with  the  growth  of  the  large  cities 
have  gradually  become  very  unequal.  In  the  case  of  Berlin  the  dis- 
proportion is  enormous,  for  the  city,  according  to  the  last  census,  has 
nearly  two  million  inhabitants,  but  is  still  represented  by  only  six 
members.  The  government,  however,  is  not  anxious  for  a  redis- 
tribution of  seats,  because  Berlin  elects  Radicals  and  Socialists,  who 
form  a  troublesome  opposition — a  tendency  which  is  also  true  of 
other  large  centers  of  population.  As  in  the  United  States,  no  dis- 
trict can  be  composed  of  parts  of  different  states,  so  that  every  state, 
however  small,  elects  at  least  one  representative.  Of  the  397  seats 
Prussia  has  236,  and  the  eleven  smaller  states  one  apiece. 

Universal  suffrage  was  looked  upon  as  an  experiment  of  a 
somewhat  hazardous  character,  and  Bismarck  insisted  on  the  non- 
payment of  members  of  the  Reichstag  as  a  safeguard.  This  has 
been  a  bone  of  contention  with  the  Liberals  ever  since — the  Reich- 
stag having  repeatedly  passed  bills  for  the  payment  of  its  mem- 
bers, which  the  Bundesrath  has  invariably  rejected.  The  absence 
of  remuneration  has  not  been  without  effect,  for  it  has  deterred 
university  professors  and  other  men  of  small  means,  usually  of 


THE     EMPIRE  4.81 

1871-1910 

liberal  views,  from  accepting  an  office  which  entails  the  expense 
of  a  long  residence  at  Berlin;  but  it  has  not  fulfilled  the  predic- 
tions that  were  made  either  by  its  friends  or  its  foes,  for  it  has  not 
caused  a  dearth  of  candidates  nor  discouraged  the  presence  of  men 
who  make  politics  their  occupation.  The  provision  has,  however, 
a  meaning  one  would  hardly  suspect.  In  1885,  when  the  Socialist 
representatives  were  paid  a  salary  by  their  own  party,  Bismarck, 
claiming  that  such  a  proceeding  was  illegal,  caused  the  treasury 
to  sue  them  for  the  sums  of  money  they  had  received  in  this  way ; 
and,  strange  to  say,  the  imperial  court  of  appeal  sustained  the  suit. 
The  object  of  withholding  pay  from  the  members  is,  of  course, 
to  prevent  the  power  of  the  poorer  classes  from  becoming  too  great ; 
but  a  much  more  effectual  means  to  the  same  end  is  the  habit  of 
holding  elections  on  working  days,  instead  of  holding  them  on 
Sundays,  as  is  done  in  France  and  most  of  the  other  Catholic 
countries. 

The  powers  of  the  Reichstag  appear  very  great  on  paper. 
All  laws  require  its  consent,  and  so  do  the  budget,  all  loans,  and 
all  commercial  treaties  which  would  involve  matters  falling  within 
the  domain  of  legislation.  It  has  a  right  to  initiate  legislation,  to 
ask  the  government  for  reports,  and  to  express  its  opinion  on  the 
management  of  affairs.  In  reality,  however,  its  powers  are  not  so 
great  as  they  seem.  The  constitution  provides,  for  example,  that 
the  budget  shall  be  annual,  but  the  principal  revenue  laws  are  per- 
manent, and  cannot  be  changed  without  the  consent  of  the  Bundes- 
rath,  while  the  most  important  appropriation,  that  for  the  army, 
is  virtually  determined  by  the  law  fixing  the  number  of  the  troops, 
and  this  has  hitherto  been  voted  for  a  number  of  years  at  a  time.^ 
The  chief  function  of  the  Reichstag  is,  in  fact,  the  consideration  of 
bills  prepared  by  the  chancellor  and  the  Bundesrath.  These  it 
criticises  and  amends  pretty  freely;  but  its  activity  is  rather  nega- 
tive than  positive,  and  although  important  measures  occasionally 
have  been  passed  at  its  instigation,  it  cannot  be  said  to  direct  the 
policy  of  the  state  either  in  legislation  or  administration. 

The  Bundesrath  is  an  extraordinary  body  partaking  of  the 
nature  of  an  upper  house,  an  executive  council,  a  court  of  appeal, 
and  a  permanent  assembly  of  diplomats.  It  is  the  most  thoroughly 
native  feature  of  the  German  Empire,  and  is  really  an  outgrowth 

2  In  1871  for  three  years ;  in  1874,  1880,  and  1887  for  seven  years ;  in  1893 
for  five  years ;  and  in  1899  for  three  years. 


432  GERMANY 

1871-1910 

of  previous  conditions.  It  is  composed  of  delegates  appointed  by 
the  princes  of  the  states  and  the  senates  of  the  free  cities.  In  the 
Bundesrath  there  are  58  seats,  of  which  Prussia  has  17,  Bavaria 
6,  and  the  remaining  states  from  i  to  4  apiece.  Thus  it  has  usually 
been  easy  for  Prussia  to  get  enough  additional  votes  to  have  an 
absolute  majority,  and  have  her  own  way;  but  on  several  notable 
occasions  the  other  states  have  combined  and  defeated  her.  This 
happened  in  1877,  when  the  seat  of  the  imperial  court  of  appeal  was 
fixed  at  Leipzig,  instead  of  Berlin,  as  she  desired;  and  in  1876  on 
the  more  important  question  of  the  imperial  railroad  law.  At  that 
time  Bismarck  refrained  altogether  from  introducing  into  the 
Bundesrath  a  bill  for  the  purchase  of  railroads  by  the  empire, 
knowing  it  would  be  defeated  by  the  opposition  of  the  middle-sized 
states,  although  the  project  was  one  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart. 
Again,  in  1879,  another  railroad  bill  was  killed  in  the  Bundesrath 
by  the  opposition  of  Bavaria,  Saxony,  and  Wiirtemberg,  and  in 
the  same  year  a  conference  of  the  finance  ministers  of  the  states 
refused  to  consent  to  the  tobacco  monopoly. 

The  executive  power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  emperor  (Kaiser), 
who  is  always  king  of  Prussia,  and  of  the  all-powerful  chancellor 
(Reichskamler),  who  is  usually  a  Prussian  official  and  president 
of  the  Prussian  cabinet.  There  is  no  imperial  cabinet  responsible 
to  parliament,  like  the  English  cabinet,  and  composed  of  heads  of 
departments  standing  on  an  equal  footing.  Instead,  there  towers 
above,  and  alone,  the  chancellor,  who  has  subordinates,  but  not 
colleagues.  His  unique  position  is  due  to  the  fact  that  Bismarck 
created  the  office  for  himself  and  did  not  wish  to  be  hampered  by 
associates.  He  had  had  experience  enough  of  the  Prussian  cabinet 
methods,  where  each  of  the  members  was  very  independent  in  the 
management  of  his  own  department.  Being  by  nature  intolerant 
of  opposition,  Bismarck  always  hated  to  waste  his  time  and  strength 
in  persuading  his  colleagues — and  all  their  friends  and  advisers — 
that  the  policy  he  had  decided  to  adopt  was  a  wise  one.  The  chan- 
cellor is  not  responsible  criminally  for  his  policy,  and  Bismarck 
steadily  refused  to  hold  himself  responsible  politically  to  anyone 
but  his  royal  master,  so  that  practically  the  parliamentary  system 
docs  not  exist  in  the  German  Empire,  and  the  chancellor  does  not 
resign  on  a  hostile  vote  in  the  Reichstag.  If  that  body  will  not 
pass  one  of  his  measures,  he  gets  on  as  well  as  he  can  without  it; 
or,  if  he  considers  it  a  matter  of  vital  importance,  he  causes  the 


THE     EMPIRE  488 

1871-1910 

Reichstag  to  be  dissolved  and  takes  the  chance  of  success  from  a  new 
election. 

The  powers  of  the  chancellor  are  wide-reaching-.  He  pre- 
sides in  the  Bundesrath,  and  is  in  fact  its  leading  and  moving  spirit. 
He  also  takes  an  active  part  in  the  debates  of  the  Reichstag,  ex- 
plaining and  defending  his  imperial  measures  and  policy.  His 
powers,  in  the  years  immediately  after  the  Franco-Prussian  War, 
were  greater  than  those  of  any  other  man  in  the  world.  The 
burden  soon  proved  too  great  for  even  Bismarck's  iron  frame  to 
bear.  When,  therefore,  he  was  granted  a  leave  of  absence  for 
rest,  an  act  was  passed  in  1878  providing  for  the  appointment,  by 
the  emperor,  of  a  vice-chancellor,  or  general  substitute.  This  new 
official  was  intended  to  act  only  during  the  interval  of  the  chan- 
cellor's absence,  but  with  the  increasing  business  of  the  empire  has 
now  become  a  permanent  necessity.  Similarly  it  has  become  the 
custom  to  make  as  many  as  possible  of  the  imperial  secretaries  of 
state  special  substitutes  for  their  own  departments,  with  the  power 
of  countersigning  the  acts  of  the  emperor  in  the  chancellor's  stead; 
they  also  are  often  appointed  Prussian  delegates  to  the  Bundesrath, 
in  order  that  they  may  speak  for  their  department  both  in  that 
body  and  in  the  Reichstag.  They  are,  nevertheless,  subject  always 
to  the  chancellor's  orders;  he  remains  practically  the  sole  head 
of  the  government,  and  the  person  morally,  if  not  politically,  re- 
sponsible for  its  whole  policy,  domestic  and  foreign. 

Justice  and  judicial  procedure  have  been  wholly  remodeled 
in  the  empire.  In  1871  there  was  the  greatest  confusion  and 
variety  in  legal  practice.  Each  little  state,  and  often,  even,  each 
city,  had  its  own  particular  code  and  legal  system.  When  the  city 
had  been  absorbed  in  the  larger  territory,  sometimes  it  had  kept 
its  special  code,  sometimes  only  part  of  it ;  oftentimes  the  question 
was  left  in  uncertainty  and  confusion.  In  one  district  there  would 
be  trial  by  jury  in  open  court;  in  a  neighboring  district  the  older 
procedure  by  written  pleadings  before  a  judge;  and  in  many  dis- 
tricts, especially  in  the  north  along  the  Baltic,  the  old  feudal  juris- 
diction of  the  manorial  courts  still  survived.  Such  complications 
and  confusion  could  not  be  allowed  to  continue  in  the  new  empire. 
Legal  commissions  were  at  once  appointed  to  study  different  sides 
of  the  question  and  draw  up  new  codes  which  should  supersede  the 
old.  The  commissions  worked  slowly  and  carefully,  and  succeeded 
fairly  well  in  reconciling  and  combining  the  various  elements^ 


434 


GERMANY 


1671-1910 

Roman  Law,  Teutonic  Law,  and  the  Code  Napoleon — Into  new 
codes.  In  1877  a  criminal  code  was  completed  and  adopted  for  the 
empire,  in  1897  a  commercial  code,  and  in  1900  a  very  compre- 
hensive civil  code  crowned  the  task  of  establishing  uniformity  in 
law  and  procedure.  Each  state  retains  its  local  courts,  but  there 
is  an  appeal  to  the  court  of  the  empire  (Reichsgericht) ,  which  sits 
at  Leipzig. 

Since  the  founding  of  the  empire  one  of  the  most  interesting, 
and  yet  most  complex,  features  of  German  history  has  been  the 
development  of  political  parties.  They  do  not,  as  in  England  or 
America,  fall  into  two  great  divisions,  one  supporting  and  the 
other  opposing  the  government.  On  the  contrary,  there  are  more 
than  a  dozen  parties  which  now  support,  now  oppose,  the  measures 
of  the  chancellor,  and  which  have  varied  much  in  numbers.^  The 
four  most  important  parties  were  already  in  existence  in  Prussia 
before  1870,  and  were  taken  over  by  the  new  empire  from  the 
Prussian  kingdom.  To  understand  their  origin  a  glance  backward 
to  the  "  Period  of  Conflict  "  in  the  early  sixties  is  necessary. 

In  the  bitter  constitutional  struggle  between  Bismarck  and  the 
parliamentary  party  over  the  reorganization  of  the  Prussian  army, 
the  deputies  in  the  Prussian  legislature  were  sharply  divided  into 
two  parties — the  Conservatives  and  the  Progressives  (or  Fort- 
schrittspartei).  The  former  was  the  one  to  which  Bismarck 
himself  by  birth  and  training  naturally  belonged.  It  was  recruited 
mainly  from  the  lesser  nobility  and  "  Junkers,"  and  came  largely 

•The   following   table    shows   the    strength    of   the   various   parties    in   the 
Reichstag  at  the  more  important  elections : 


PARTIES 


Conservatives 

Free  Conservatives  (Reichspartei) 

National    Liberals 

Liberals  (Fortschritt,  Freisinnige) . 

Soenter  or  Clericals 

Polcial    Democrats 

Alses 

Alsace-Lorrainers 

Anti-Semites 

Danes  and  Guelphs 

Other  Parties 

Total 


1896 


12 
34 
56 
78 
90 
12 
34 
56 
78 
90 
12 


123 


1897 


34 
56 

67 
90 
II 
12 
34 
56 
78 


295 


1896 


53 
21 
48 

43 
103 

56 
14 
10 
12 


397 


1899 


58 
15 
50 

35 

100 

82 

16 

9 


15 


397 


THE    EMPIRE  465 

1871-1910 

from  east  of  the  Elbe.  The  Conservatives  were  upholders  of  mili- 
tarism, of  social  class  distinctions,  and  of  the  strong  monarchy 
which  had  given  to  themselves  and  their  relatives  most  of  the 
military,  civil,  and  diplomatic  appointments.  But  during  the 
"  Period  of  Conflict "  they  were  almost  always  in  a  minority. 

The  Progressives,  on  the  other  hand,  aimed  to  introduce  into 
Prussia  a  truly  parliamentary  government,  to  have  the  ministers 
responsible  to  the  legislature,  to  have  real  control  over  the  grant- 
ing and  expending  of  taxes,  and  to  reduce  the  monarchical  power 
and  influence  until  it  should  be  no  greater  in  Prussia  than  in  Eng- 
land. Over  the  Progressive  majority,  however,  Bismarck  had 
ridden  rough-shod,  telling  them  that  nothing  could  be  accomplished 
by  speeches  and  celebrations  and  songs,  but  only  by  "  blood  and 
iron."  It  was  in  spite  of  the  bitterest  Progressive  opposition  that 
Bismarck  carried  out  the  army  reorganization.  The  wonderful 
victory  over  Austria  which  followed  seemed  to  justify  Bismarck's 
policy  and  methods,  and  to  disarm  criticism.  A  sudden  change 
took  place  in  public  opinion:  instead  of  the  tyrannical  despiser 
of  popular  rights,  Bismarck  appeared  to  be  a  far-sighted  statesman, 
a  champion  of  German  unity,  and  even  of  liberty  and  democracy. 
This  feeling  was  still  further  increased  when  he  adopted  universal 
manhood  suffrage  as  the  basis  on  which  were  elected  representatives 
to  the  legislature  of  the  North  German  Confederation,  and  then  to 
its  successor,  the  Reichstag  of  the  empire.  These  changes,  together 
with  the  Franco-Prussian  War  and  the  union  of  the  south  Ger- 
man states,  resulted  in  splitting  each  of  the  old  existing  parties  into 
two  new  divisions.  A  number  of  the  Conservatives,  who  were 
less  reactionary  than  their  fellows  and  more  in  favor  of  the  new 
federal  system,  left  the  party  and  organized  another  called  the 
Free  Conservatives  (or  Deutsche  Reichspartei).  Similarly  those 
Progressives,  who  were  less  dogmatic  and  doctrinaire,  and  had 
more  confidence  in  Bismarck  than  the  rest  of  the  Progressives, 
split  off  and  formed  a  more  moderate  party  known  as  the  National 
Liberals.  Their  members  came  largely  from  south  Germany  and 
from  the  smaller  German  states,  and  formed  a  truly  national 
patriotic  party.  These  two  new  middle  parties — Free  Conserva- 
tives and  National  Liberals — were  the  ones  which  supported  Bis- 
marck in  the  first  years  of  the  empire. 

Under  the  head  of  "  irreconcilables  "  are  included  several  little 
parties,  or  rather  factions,  which  almost  invariably  vote  against 


486  GERMANY 

1871-1910 

the  government  as  a  means  of  protestinpf  against  the  wrong  which 
they  believe  has  been  done  to  their  country.  Such  are  the  Guelphs 
of  Hanover,  the  Poles,  Danes,  and  Alsace-Lorrainers,  who  regard 
the  absorption  of  their  country  into  the  empire  as  a  wrongful  act. 
Various  efforts  have  been  made  alternately  by  coercion  and  con- 
ciliation to  break  their  opposition,  to  make  them  feel  that  they  are 
an  important  and  integral  part  of  the  German  Empire,  but  with 
only  partial  success. 

In  Alsace-Lorraine  a  systematic  attempt  was  made  to  extirpate 
French  from  the  schools,  from  official  proceedings,  and  from  the 
railways;  it  was  even  forbidden  on  signs  and  posters.  Fines  and 
imprisonment  were  used  to  repress  manifestations  of  French  sym- 
pathy in  any  form.  Journals  with  French  tendencies  and  journals 
coming  from  France  were  suppressed.  But  all  this  failed  to  make 
the  population  German.  Manteuffel,  who  became  governor  in  1879, 
tried  a  more  conciliatory  policy  and  endeavored  to  win  the  respect 
of  the  people,  but  his  successor  returned  to  the  repressive  methods, 
and,  to  prevent  agitation  by  French  agents,  enforced  a  careful  system 
of  requiring  all  persons  crossing  the  border  to  show  passports.  In 
the  last  ten  years,  however,  the  Alsace-Lorraine  question  has  been 
less  bitter.  Germanization  seems  to  some  extent  to  be  succeeding; 
it  is  estimated  that  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  population  now  speak 
German  as  their  mother-tongue.  There  has  been  a  considerable 
settlement  by  German  farmers  from  across  the  Rhine,  and  the  whole 
region  has  shared  in  the  growth  of  Germany's  material  prosperity. 
Strasburg,  especially,  has  grown  in  wealth  and  numbers,  and  with 
her  flourishing  new  university  with  German  professors  has  become 
a  center  of  really  German  patriotic  feeling,  which  may  spread  into 
the  rest  of  the  regions  won  from  France  in  18701 871.  Some  French 
newspapers  have  openly  advocated  recognizing  as  permanent  the 
renunciation  of  territory,  in  order  to  ensure  better  relations  with 
Germany.  And  it  is  probably  true  that  the  desire  for  the  reunion 
of  Alsace-Lorraine  to  France  is  less  strong  to-day  among  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  province  itself  than  among  the  nationalists  of  Paris, 
who  keep  continually  decorated  the  statue  of  Strassburg  in  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde. 

In  the  Polish  provinces  the  outlook  is  less  hopeful.  Before 
1848  German  liberals  regarded  the  partition  of  Poland  as  a  great 
crime  and  were  anxious  to  make  amends  for  it.  Bismarck  himself 
remembered  how,  in  his  early  boyhood,  after  the  failure  of  the 


THEEMPIRE  4S7 

1671-1910 

Polish  Revolution  of  1830,  Polish  refugees  were  received  in  every 
German  town  with  honors  and  enthusiasm  greater  than  those  paid 
to  the  men  who  had  fought  in  the  War  of  German  Liberation.  But 
Bismarck  never  shared  this  feeling.  He  saw  in  the  Poles  an  anti- 
German  and  an  anti-imperial  element;  he  clearly  realized  that  any 
reestablishment  of  Poland  must  inevitably  lead  to  trouble  with 
Russia,  which  also  has  a  large  Polish  element,  and  that  the  Poles 
would  never  be  satisfied  until  they  regained  lands  which  Prussia 
would  never  be  willing  to  surrender.  He,  therefore,  adopted  toward 
the  Poles  an  attitude  of  uncompromising  hostility,  and  steadily 
pursued  a  repressive  policy.  In  1885  and  1886  new  Polish  settlers 
in  Prussian  Poland  were  expelled;  the  whole  administration  of 
the  schools  was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  local  authorities  and 
given  over  to  the  central  government,  so  as  to  prevent  the  instruc- 
tion from  being  given  in  Polish;  and  finally  a  law  was  passed 
authorizing  the  Prussian  government  to  spend  nearly  twenty-five 
million  dollars  in  purchasing  estates  from  Polish  families  and 
settling  German  colonists  on  the  land.  Within  ten  years  some 
two  thousand  German  peasants  were  transplanted,  but  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  this  has  much  practical  effect,  for  the  Poles  have 
founded  a  society  to  protect  their  own  interests,  and  have  often 
managed  to  profit  by  the  artificial  value  given  to  the  property.  And 
though  in  school  the  children  may  have  to  learn  their  lessons  in 
German,  in  their  play,  at  the  dinner  table,  and  in  their  prayers 
they  will  still  speak  Polish.  The  attempt  at  colonization  by  Ger- 
man settlers  has  still  further  increased  the  bitterness  of  the  Polish 
peasants,  and  is  partly  defeated  by  the  fact  that  Poles  multiply  much 
faster  than  the  Germans  and,  being  more  thrifty  and  frugal,  make 
dangerous  competitors  for  their  German  neighbors.  The  coloniza- 
tion is  also  partly  counteracted  by  the  fact  that  the  large  proprietors 
in  purely  German  districts  continue  to  import  Polish  laborers  to 
work  on  their  estates.  Emperor  William  H.,  shortly  after  his 
accession,  made  concessions  in  the  matter  of  schools,  but  soon  re- 
turned to  Bismarck's  policy.  Twenty-five  million  dollars  more  were 
voted  for  colonization  purposes,  but  there  seems  little  likelihood 
that  the  Poles,  in  the  immediate  future  at  least,  can  be  compelled  to 
give  up  their  mother-tongue  and  national  traditions. 

The  Socialist  party,  or  Social  Democrats,  as  they  call  them- 
selves, were  small  in  numbers  at  the  founding  of  the  empire,  but 
have  steadily  grown  in  power  since  then.    They  are  a  product  of  the 


4d8  GERMANY 

1871-1910 

discontent  which  has  inevitably  come  with  the  progress  in  manufac- 
turing, with  the  widening  of  the  gulf  between  rich  and  poor,  and 
with  the  growth  of  a  great  protelariat.  The  teachings  of  Marx 
in  favor  of  communism  and  of  Lassalle  in  favor  of  equal  political 
rights  for  all  found  ready  hearers,  who,  in  1869,  united  and  formed 
the  Social  Democratic  Workingman's  party.  Bebel  and  Liebknecht 
were  its  leaders  and  spokesmen.  The  Social  Democrats  opposed 
the  Franco-Prussian  War,  and  expressed  sympathy  with  the  Paris 
Communists,  thereby  offending  German  national  feeling  and  ex- 
posing themselves  to  taunts  of  coward  and  traitor.  Though  they 
opposed  the  warlike  methods  by  which  German  unity  was  secured, 
they  accepted  the  empire  and  profited  by  it  indirectly.  For  after 
1870  the  old  customs  barriers  and  many  other  hindrances  to  trade 
were  swept  away,  and  the  natural  development  of  industry  and 
trade  gave  a  new  impulse  to  business  activity  and  prosperity.  The 
enormous  French  war  indemnity  acted  as  a  further  stimulus.  Prices 
rose,  including  the  price  of  labor ;  the  workingman  for  the  moment 
felt  better  off  and  more  self-important.  This  new  capital  also  led 
everywhere  to  the  construction  of  new  factories,  railroads,  and  enter- 
prises of  every  kind.  It  is  estimated  that  in  the  three  years  be- 
tween 1 87 1  and  1874  as  many  factories  were  built  as  in  all  the 
preceding  seventy  years!  In  Prussia,  in  1872  alone,  in  addition  to 
1800  existing  miles  of  railroad,  700  more  were  actually  laid  down 
and  1200  planned!  Soon,  however,  unscrupulous  promoters,  taking 
advantage  of  the  public  interest  and  confidence  in  business  activity, 
launched  upon  an  unsuspecting  public  innumerable  companies  and 
schemes  which  were  mere  swindles;  stock-jobbing  methods  of 
robbing  the  public  flourished  for  a  time,  until  the  natural  result 
of  over-capitalization  and  unsound  finance  came  in  the  terrible 
crash  of  1873.  Companies  failed  on  every  hand;  workingmen  were 
not  only  thrown  out  of  employment,  but  they  found  too  often  that 
the  small  savings  which  they  had  made  were  now  completely  swept 
away  in  the  bankrupt  companies.  The  result  was  an  increase  of 
discontent  among  the  working  class,  and  as  the  size  of  the  Social 
Democratic  party  is  a  gauge  of  the  discontent  in  Germany,  they 
gained  nine  seats  in  the  Reichstag  elections  in  1874.  They  con- 
trolled several  newspapers,  had  a  centralized  management  and  a 
treasury,  and  formed  a  compact  party.  On  account  of  their  attacks 
on  religion,  marriage,  monarchy,  and  private  property,  Bismarck 
already  looked  upon  them  with  disfavor,  but  was  not  ready  to  act 


T  H  E     E  M  P  I R  E  489 

I871-1910 

against  them  on  account  of  the  great  struggle  he  was  at  the  moment 
waging  against  the  Clerical  party. 

Of  a  wholly  different  nature  from  the  preceding  parties  was 
the  Clerical  party,  which  appeared  in  the  first  Reichstag  in  1871 
with  the  astonishing  large  number  of  sixty-three  representatives. 
These  men  were  neither  conservative  nor  liberal  exclusively,  but 
contained  both  aristocratic  and  democratic  elements — nobles  from 
Bavaria  and  radicals  from  the  manufacturing  cities  on  the  Rhine. 
Their  common  bond  was  their  Catholic  religion,  and  their  common 
aim  was  to  support  the  Pope  in  his  new  dogmatic  pretensions,  and 
try  to  wan  back  for  him  his  recently  lost  temporal  power.  In 
the  Reichstag,  therefore,  they  took  seats  neither  on  the  right  with 
the  Conservatives  nor  on  the  left  with  the  Progressists,  but  in  the 
center,  and  have  since  been  known,  therefore,  as  the  Centrum,  or 
Clerical  party.  Their  numbers  have  always  remained  large;  they 
fought  and  practically  won  the  Kultiirkampf  against  Bismarck; 
and  since  1880  they  have  frequently  exercised  a  controlling  and 
decisive  position  in  the  Reichstag  by  their  possession  of  the  bal- 
ance of  power  between  the  various  parties. 

The  Catholics  had  appeared  as  a  political  party  before  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  but  had  aroused  little  notice.  But  the  Sylla- 
bus, the  Vatican  Council,  and  the  declaration  of  Papal  infallibility 
gave  them  new  strength,  and  their  increased  aggressiveness  aroused 
growing  opposition  among  some  of  the  governments,  which  feared 
that  the  logical  outcome  of  Papal  infallibility  would  be  an  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  Pope  to  assume  infallibility  in  politics  and  to 
attempt  to  subordinate  the  state  to  the  church.  The  old  mediaeval 
specter  again  raised  its  head,  of  a  state  within  a  state,  and  of  spir- 
itual interference  in  temporal  affairs.  Then  came  the  victorious 
march  of  the  Italian  troops  into  Rome  and  the  Pope's  loss  of  that 
"  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter  "  which  the  Papacy  had  possessed  un- 
disputed for  a  thousand  years  and  more.  The  inevitable  result  of 
this  was  that  Roman  Catholics  all  over  the  world  felt  themselves 
bound  together  in  a  common  political  cause:  each  was  bound  in 
his  own  state  to  use  his  full  influence  to  procure  interference  either 
by  diplomacy  or  by  arms  for  the  rescue  of  the  "  Prisoner  of  the 
Vatican,"  Thus  in  Germany  the  Hanoverian  Windthorst  in  the 
fall  of  1870  had  a  secret  meeting  with  Bavarian  Catholics  to 
adopt  a  common  plan  of  action.  On  New  Year's  Day,  1871, 
their  organ,  the  Germania,  began  its  regular  issue.     And  in  Feb- 


440  GERMANY 

1871-1910 

ruary,  while  the  German  army  was  still  encamped  before  Paris, 
an  address  was  presented  to  the  King  of  Prussia  at  Versailles,  urg- 
ing him  to  use  the  influence  of  the  new  formed  empire  to  reestablish 
the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope.  It  was,  of  course,  rejected  by 
Bismarck,  who  saw  its  impossibility.  He  was  irritated  always  at 
any  attempt  to  dictate  to  him  in  matters  of  foreign  policy.  This 
irritation  increased  when  the  Reichstag  met  a  few  weeks  later. 
He  found  that  the  Center  had  more  than  sixty  seats,  and  refused 
to  vote  in  favor  of  the  usual  address  to  the  crown  on  account  of 
a  clause  condemning  interference  in  the  affairs  of  foreign  countries 
— a  clause  designed  to  prevent  any  action  in  favor  of  the  Pope.  His 
dislike  of  the  Center  increased  still  further  as  he  found  that 
Windthorst  and  many  of  the  Clericals  were  "  particularists,"  who 
were  either  openly  opposed  to  the  new  empire  or  who  were  at  least 
opposed  to  a  strong  central  governement.  Thus  Bismarck  opposed 
the  Center  on  political  grounds,  as  a  party  disloyal  and  dangerous 
to  the  empire,  as  a  "  mobilization  of  the  church  against  the  state." 
"  The  question  at  issue,"  he  declared,  "  is  not  a  struggle  of  an 
evangelistic  dynasty  against  the  Catholic  Church;  it  is  the  old 
struggle — a  struggle  for  power  as  old  as  the  human  race,  between 
king  and  priest,  a  struggle  which  is  much  older  than  the  appearance 
of  our  Redeemer  in  this  world,  a  struggle  which  has  filled  German 
history  of  the  Middle  Ages  till  the  destruction  of  the  German 
Empire." 

But  the  question  did  not  long  remain  a  merely  political  one. 
It  soon  spread  outside  of  Prussia,  and  aroused  religious  hatreds 
and  bitterness  all  over  Germany  in  a  way  which  recalled  the  days 
of  the  Reformation. 

When  the  Pope  tried  to  make  the  German  bishops  and  clergy 
accept  the  new  dogma  of  Papal  infallibility  the  majority  complied, 
but  a  certain  number  refused.  These  latter  were  then  at  once  ex- 
communicated by  the  Pope;  they  therefore  seceded  and  formed 
themselves  into  a  group  known  as  Old  Catholics.  When  the  Pope 
followed  up  his  excommunication  by  insisting  that  they  be  deprived 
of  their  functions  and  salaries,  they  appealed  to  the  Prussian  gov- 
ernment, which  upheld  them  and  continued  them  in  their  ofiice. 
Thus  began  that  most  unfortunate  conflict  between  church  and 
state  known  as  the  Kulturkampf,  or  war  in  behalf  of  civilization, 
in  which  Bismarck  championed  the  state.  When  Bavarian  bishops 
and  priests,  who  remained  on  the  side  of  the  Pope,  attacked  the 


THE     EMPIRE  441 

I87I-19I0 

Old  Catholics  from  their  pulpits,  the  Reichstag  passed  a  law — 
the  famous  Kanaelparagraph — which  made  it  a  penal  offense  for 
priests  to  use  their  pastoral  position  for  political  purposes.  This 
was  followed  in  June,  1872,  by  a  law  expelling  the  Jesuits  and  other 
kindred  orders  from  the  territory  of  the  empire.  In  December, 
1872,  when  Pius  IX.  protested  against  this  expulsion,  in  terms  that 
were  construed  as  insulting  to  the  emperor,  Bismarck  forbade  the 
allocution  to  be  published  in  Germany,  and  recalled  his  ambassador 
from  the  Vatican,  thus  diplomatically  declaring  war.  Having  once 
entered  upon  the  Kultnrkampf,  Bismarck  and  the  Prussian  gov- 
ernment fought  with  energy.  In  May,  1873,  the  Prussian  legisla- 
ture passed  the  "  May  Laws,"  which  aimed  to  limit  the  disciplinary 
power  of  the  church  over  its  members,  and  to  place  the  education 
and  installation  of  the  whole  clergy  under  the  control  of  the  gov- 
ernment. Churches  were  to  be  subject  to  state  inspectors ;  all  clergy 
were  to  be  appointed  and  dismissed  only  with  the  consent  of  the  state, 
and  candidates  had  to  pass  state  examinations  in  philosophy,  history, 
philology,  and  the  German  language.  Civil  marriage  was  made  com- 
pulsory, so  as  to  cripple  the  very  strong  power  which  the  Roman 
Catholic  priests  could  exercise  otherwise.  All  priests  and  bishops 
who  disobeyed  any  of  these  laws — and  they  were  many — were 
suspended  from  office  and  their  salaries  and  revenues  taken  over 
by  the  state,  until  by  1877  eight  Prussian  bishoprics  and  more  than 
fourteen  hundred  curacies  were  vacant.  But  Bismarck  found  he 
had  a  more  determined  and  more  powerful  enemy  to  deal  with  than 
he  had  supposed — an  enemy  far  more  dangerous  than  the  Liberals 
in  the  "  Period  of  Conflict "  a  dozen  years  before.  The  Catholics 
dared  to  do  what  the  Liberals  had  not  ventured  on — they  disobeyed 
the  law,  boldly  declaring  that  the  laws  of  the  state  were  not  the 
ultimate  source  of  right,  and  ought  not  to  be  obeyed  if  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  God.  By  1877  Bismarck  saw  that  the  situation  was 
becoming  unbearable  for  him.  Not  only  were  a  large  part  of  the 
clergy  in  open  opposition,  but  the  people  felt  that  he  had  gone  too 
far  in  his  attempt  to  subjugate  the  church  to  the  state;  and  they 
resented  being  deprived  of  the  religious  services  of  the  suspended 
clergy.  In  some  villages  there  was  no  one  to  baptize,  marry,  and 
bury  them.  This  feeling  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  each  new 
election  to  the  Reichstag  the  Centrum  gained  instead  of  losing 
votes.  Bismarck's  embarrassment  in  the  Reichstag  steadily  in- 
creased, for  the  National  Liberals,  who  had  at  first  supported  him 


44t  GERMANY 

1S71-19I0 

and  passed  the  anti-clerical  laws,  began  to  vote  against  some  finan- 
cial measures  which  he  considered  essential.  It  was  partly  this 
sense  of  defeat  and  mistaken  policy  which  influenced  him  in  April, 
1877,  to  hand  in  his  resignation  of  all  his  offices,  giving  as  his 
pretext  ill-health.  But  Emperor  William  was  unwilling  to  part 
with  his  old  friend  and  refused  to  accept  it.  "  Never,"  he  wrote 
on  the  side  of  the  minute.  Instead,  he  granted  to  Bismarck  an 
unlimited  leave  of  absence.  The  chancellor  retired  to  his  estate  at 
Varzin  for  rest,  but  only  for  ten  months.  In  February,  1878,  he 
returned,  recruited  in  health  and  spirits,  to  guide  the  affairs  of  the 
empire  for  a  dozen  years  to  come.  One  of  the  first  indications  of 
his  new  policy  was  his  change  of  attitude  toward  the  Clericals.  In 
spite  of  his  proud  declaration  at  the  beginning  of  the  Kultur- 
kampf,  "  We  will  never  go  to  Canossa," — alluding  to  Henry  IV. 
and  Gregory  VII. — ^he  was  glad  of  the  accession  and  friendly  at- 
titude of  Leo  XIII.  Gradually  the  laws  against  the  Catholics 
were  relaxed  or  repealed,  clerical  vacancies  were  filled,  and  seques- 
trated revenues  restored.  In  1887  religious  orders  occupied  in 
charitable  work  were  allowed  to  return  to  Prussia,  but  the  Jesuits 
were  not  officially  readmitted  until  1904.  The  Pope  on  his  side 
used  his  influence  to  restore  religious  peace  in  Germany  and  to 
restrain  the  clergy  from  acting  in  opposition  to  the  government. 
And  it  was  in  fact  the  support  of  the  Centrum  which  enabled 
Bismarck  to  pass  the  great  tariff  which  he  had  been  planning  during 
the  ten  months  at  Varzin. 

The  year  1878  marks  a  turning-point  in  German  history.  In 
foreign  affairs  Bismarck's  preeminence  in  diplomacy  was  again 
strikingly  emphasized  by  the  way  in  which  he  presided  at  the  Con- 
gress of  Berlin,  and,  acting  as  "honest  broker  "  among  the  various 
claimants  for  Turkish  territory,  succeeded  in  reconciling  the  ap- 
parently irreconcilable  demands  of  England  and  Russia.  This 
year  also  marks  Germany's  divergence  from  Russia  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  closer  relations  with  Austria  and  Italy  which  re- 
sulted in  the  Triple  Alliance.  In  the  internal  history  of  Germany 
the  year  1878  marks  tlie  practical  end  of  the  KuHurkampf,  the  be- 
ginning of  the  new  protective  policy  and  state  socialism,  the 
break-up  of  the  power  of  the  National  Liberal  party,  and  the  passage 
of  the  first  severe  law  against  the  Socialists. 

The  empire  began  its  existence  under  a  tariff  so  low  that 
Germany  was  practically  a  free-trade  country.     Delbriick,  the  mm- 


THE     EMPIRE  443 

1871-1910 

ister  of  commerce,  and  the  National  Liberals  were  strongly  in 
favor  of  free-trade  and  a  laissez-faire  policy.  Bismarck  gave  the 
matter  small  attention  at  first;  he  was  too  occupied  with  foreign 
affairs.  But  commercial  matters  were  gradually  forced  upon  his 
notice.  The  great  wave  of  prosperity  upon  which  the  empire  had 
sailed  at  first  broke  in  the  collapse  and  panic  of  1873.  The  newly 
established  industries  everywhere  found  that  they  had  to  meet  a 
very  serious  foreign  competition.  They  began  to  cry  for  protec- 
tion to  save  themselves  from  being  pushed  to  the  wall  by  the  Eng- 
lish goods  which  were  flooding  the  country.  In  1876  the  crisis 
in  the  iron  trade  became  especially  acute.  Owing  to  overproduc- 
tion there  had  been  a  great  fall  in  prices  in  England,  so  that  English 
goods  were  dumped  in  Germany  and  sold  below  cost.  At  the 
end  of  this  year  also  even  the  slight  duty  on  iron  in  Germany  would 
expire,  unless  renewed  by  law.  Therefore  many  of  the  manu- 
facturers and  a  large  party  in  the  Reichstag  petitioned  that  at 
least  the  existing  slight  tariff  be  maintained ;  they  would  have  been 
glad  to  have  a  real  protective  tariff.  The  free-traders,  however, 
composed  mostly  of  National  Liberals,  still  had  a  majority,  and 
refused  to  act  on  the  petition.  It  had  had  the  one  important  effect 
that  Bismarck's  attention  was  now  drawn  to  economic  matters.  He 
saw  that  not  only  the  iron  trade,  but  other  industries,  had  their 
very  existence  threatened;  for  while  Germany  was  a  dumping 
ground  for  low-priced  English  manufactures,  German  manufac- 
tured goods  were  excluded  from  America,  France,  and  Russia  by 
high  protective  tariffs.  The  building  of  railways  in  Russia  would 
bring  about  an  increased  importation  of  Russian  corn  and  threat- 
ened the  prosperity  of  large  proprietors  and  peasants  alike.  As 
he  looked  over  the  country  and  saw  the  closed  factories,  ruined 
owners,  and  unemployed  workingmen  who  went  to  swell  the  num- 
bers of  the  discontented  Social  Democrats,  Bismarck  gradually  be- 
came convinced  that  Germany  needed  a  protective  tariff.  "  I  had 
the  impression,"  he  said,  "  that  under  free  trade  we  were  gradu- 
ally bleeding  to  death." 

Two  other  advantages  Bismarck  expected  from  a  protective 
tariff.  In  the  first  place  it  would  enable  him  to  ally  himself  again 
with  the  Conservatives  and  to  dispense  with  the  support  of  the 
National  Liberals  in  the  Reichstag.  His  alliance  with  the  latter 
had  always  been  of  a  temporary  nature,  for  the  sake  of  expediency ; 
on  neither  side  had  distrust  and  suspicion  been  wholly  absent; 


444  GERMANY 

1871-1910 

and  as  a  reaction  set  in  against  liberalism  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  National  Liberals  were  in  danger  of  losing 
power  anyway.  Now  that  they  had  helped  him  to  establish  Ger- 
man unity,  he  was  ready  to  abandon  them  since  their  free-trade 
ideas  were  opposed  to  his  new  plans  for  sustaining  and  developing 
the  material  prosperity  of  Germany.  He  also  hoped  that  the  in- 
creased prosperity  which  a  protective  tariff  would  bring  would  give 
employment  to  the  discontented  suffering  working  classes,  and  make 
them  less  likely  to  join  the  Social  Democratic  party.  He  did  not 
intend  merely  to  have  them  get  employment,  but  he  was  also 
planning  elaborate  measures  for  old  age  pensions  and  working- 
men's  insurance. 

A  second  advantage  of  protection  would  be  that  it  would  in- 
crease the  revenues  of  the  empire  and  solve  the  financial  question 
which  was  growing  more  and  more  serious  every  year.  By  the 
constitution  (Section  70)  it  was  provided  that  the  proceeds  of  cus- 
toms duties  and  of  most  indirect  taxes  should  be  used  to  meet  im- 
perial expenses;  but  if  these  sources  were  not  sufficient,  the  deficit 
should  be  made  up  by  contributions  assessed  upon  the  various 
states  of  the  empire  in  proportion  to  their  population.  These  con- 
tributions (Matricularbeitrage)  had  increased  and  bore  heavily 
upon  some  of  the  poorer  states.  They  caused  continual  friction  and 
unpleasantness  between  the  central  government  and  the  separate 
states,  which  tended  to  weaken  the  empire.  The  contributions 
which  were  raised  by  direct  taxation  fell  with  special  hardship 
on  the  classes  least  able  to  pay;  and  non-payment  of  even  a  very 
small  sum  was  followed  by  the  disgrace  of  a  distraint  and  forced 
sale  by  the  tax-collector.  Bismarck  stated,  perhaps  with  some  ex- 
aggeration, that  every  year  there  were  over  a  million  such  execu- 
tions, involving  the  seizure  and  sale  of  household  goods  on  account 
of  arrears  in  the  payment  of  taxes.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  tended 
to  create  discontent  and  a  feeling  of  hostility  to  the  empire  among 
the  lower  classes.  But  an  increased  revenue  from  a  protective 
tariff,  if  eked  out  by  a  government  monopoly  of  tobacco,  such  as 
was  working  so  successfully  in  France,  would  be  more  than  enough 
to  cover  all  imperial  expenses,  and  might  even  result  in  a  surplus 
which  could  be  distributed  among  the  states. 

Thus,  for  various  reasons,  both  economic  and  political,  Bis- 
marck became  a  protectionist,  and  early  in  1877  introduced  into 
the  Reichstag  a  new  tariff.     It  failed  disastrously,  because  the 


THE    EMPIRE  445 

1811-1910 

National  Liberals  voted  against  it.  They  opposed  it  not  only  on 
free-trade  grounds,  but  also  because  it  would  give  the  government 
a  large  revenue  independent  of  an  annual  legislative  grant,  and 
thus  weaken  still  further  the  control  of  the  Reichstag  over  the 
administration  of  the  empire.  Bismarck  thereupon  went  to  his 
ten  months  of  rest  and  retirement  at  Varzin.    He  bided  his  time. 

When  Bismarck  returned  in  February,  1878,  to  take  up  con- 
trol of  affairs  again,  it  soon  became  clear  that  he  would  look  for 
support  not  to  the  National  Liberals  as  before,  but  to  the  growing 
Conservative  party,  who  had  originally  stood  by  him  in  the  "  Period 
of  Conflict,"  and  with  whom  he  was  naturally  affiliated  by  birth 
and  education.  After  1878  no  more  measures  were  introduced  to 
please  the  National  Liberals;  three  Liberal  Prussian  ministers 
were  replaced  by  Conservatives;  but  still  he  could  not  command 
enough  votes  to  pass  a  protective  tariff.  Suddenly  two  outrages 
occurred  from  which  he  instantly  drew  political  advantage. 

On  May  11,  1878,  a  young  fanatic  named  Hodel  discharged 
revolver  shots  at  old  Emperor  William  as  he  was  driving  in  Berlin. 
Though  the  emperor  was  uninjured,  the  attempt  stirred  up  strong 
feeling,  which  was  directed  against  the  Social  Democrats,  as  Hodel, 
though  not  a  regular  member  of  the  party,  seemed  to  have  been 
incited  to  his  act  by  violent  speeches  heard  at  Socialist  meetings. 
Bismarck,  who  had  long  looked  with  dislike  upon  their  subversive 
teachings  and  methods,  took  the  opportunity  to  bring  in  immedi- 
ately a  severe  law  with  which  he  hoped  to  crush  the  party.  He 
succeeded  in  passing  it  through  the  Bundesrath,  but  it  was  rejected 
in  the  Reichstag,  as  being  too  sweeping  and  too  elastic. 

Only  a  few  days  later,  on  June  2,  a  second  attempt  was  made 
on  the  life  of  the  emperor  near  his  palace  by  a  man  named  Nobil- 
ing.  The  beloved  gray-haired  octogenarian,  who  had  passed 
through  so  many  battles  unhurt,  was  picked  up  unconscious,  cov- 
ered with  blood  streaming  from  his  head,  neck,  and  arms,  and  be- 
lieved to  be  dying.  His  first  words  were  to  ask  that  the  crown 
prince  be  sent  for,  that  he  might  give  into  his  hands  the  conduct 
of  affairs.  His  next  thought  was  to  ask  after  the  servant  who 
had  been  at  his  side,  and  wounded  with  him.  But  owing  to  his 
iron  constitution  the  emperor  did  not  die.  The  wounds  were  band- 
aged, the  arm  put  in  a  sling,  and  slowly  he  recovered  from  the 
shock  and  loss  of  blood. 

This  second  attempt,  so  wanton  and  without  reason,  upon  the 


446  GERMANY 

1871-1910 

life  of  a  ruler  so  universally  respected  and  beloved,  aroused  a  storm 
of  indignation  from  one  end  of  the  empire  to  the  other.  When 
Bismarck  heard  the  news  he  exclaimed,  "  Now  the  Reichstag  must 
be  dissolved."  In  the  general  election  which  followed,  while  the 
excitement  was  still  hot  and  the  antagonism  to  the  Socialists  strong, 
the  National  Liberals,  who  a  few  weeks  before  had  refused  to  vote 
for  his  anti-Socialist  law,  lost  heavily;  their  numbers  sank  from 
176  to  135,  while  the  Conservatives  gained  from  78  to  116,  and 
the  Center,  with  whom  he  was  soon  to  be  reconciled,  numbered 
87.  With  the  support  of  the  Center  and  the  Conservatives,  Bis- 
marck was  now  at  last  able  to  discard  the  National  Liberals  and 
yet  have  enough  of  a  majority  to  pass  the  anti-Socialist  law  of 
1878  and  the  protective  tariff  of  1879.'* 

The  new  law  against  the  Socialists  forbade  the  spread  of  So- 
cialistic opinions  by  books,  newspapers,  or  public  meetings;  the 
police  were  given  a  wide  discretionary  power  to  break  up  meet- 
ings and  suppress  newspapers.  The  Bundesrath  could  proclaim  a 
state  of  siege  in  any  city,  and  when  this  was  done  any  individual 
considered  dangerous  could  at  once  be  expelled  by  the  police.  The 
law  was  to  be  in  force  for  four  years,  but  was  twice  extended,  and 
lasted  until  1890,  It  was  enforced  with  great  severity,  and,  ac- 
cording to  statements  issued  by  the  Social  Democrats  in  1890, 
had  resulted  in  the  suppression  of  1400  publications,  the  banish- 
ment of  900  persons,  and  the  imprisonment  of  1500  others.  But 
it  by  no  means  crushed  the  party;  in  fact,  as  so  often  happens,  it 
throve  by  persecution.  Its  organ,  the  Social  Democrat,  appeared 
regularly  in  Switzerland,  and  at  every  election  they  won  more  seats 
in  the  Reichstag.  Under  the  milder  treatment  which  they  have  re- 
ceived since  1890  the  Social  Democrats  have  been  less  violent  in  their 
denunciations  and  less  anarchistic  in  their  tendency,  but  they  still 
steadily  oppose  every  government  army  and  navy  appropriation, 
colonial  expansion,  and  all  laws  in  any  way  restraining  personal 
liberty  or  fostering  social  distinctions. 

Bismarck's  new  tariff  was  outlined  to  the  Reichstag  in  De- 

*  Soon  after  this  a  split  occurred  in  the  National  Liberal  party:  some  und^r 
the  leadership  of  Bennigsen  were  willing  to  accept  protection  and  follow  Bis- 
marck in  spite  of  his  change  of  front;  they  retained  the  old  name.  The  rest 
of  the  parly  seceded,  stuck  to  free  trade,  opposed  reconciliation  with  the 
Clericals,  and  formed  a  party  called  the  Liberal  Union;  in  1884  they  merged 
with  the  Fortshritt,  and  the  new  combination  has  since  been  known  as  the  Ger- 
man Frecthinking  Party  {Frieisinnigepartei) . 


THEEMPIRE  Wl 

1871-1910 

cember,  1878,  after  the  Socialist  law  had  been  disposed  of.  It 
provided  for  a  moderate  duty  of  about  five  per  cent,  on  all  imported 
goods  (with  the  exception  of  raw  material  required  for  German 
manufactures),  a  high  excise  duty  on  tobacco,  beer,  brandy,  and  pe- 
troleum, and  high  protective  duties  on  iron,  corn,  cattle,  wood, 
wine,  and  sugar.  The  debate  on  the  bill  occupied  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  session  of  1879,  and  was  a  great  battle  between  free  trade 
and  protection.  In  the  end,  by  a  coalition  of  the  agrarians  and 
manufacturers,  the  bill  was  passed,  and  its  principles  have  been 
maintained  ever  since,  though  somewhat  modified  by  recent  reci- 
procity treaties.  The  result  of  the  law  has  been  that  in  the  twenty 
years  from  1879  to  1899  the  revenue  from  tariff  and  excise  has 
increased  from  230,000,000  marks  to  over  700,000,000,  thus  more 
than  realizing  Bismarck's  hopes  that  the  receipts  would  meet  the 
imperial  expenses.  In  several  years  there  has  actually  been  a  sur- 
plus distributed  among  the  states  of  the  empire. 

In  the  decade  from  1880  to  1890  Bismarck  was  largely  occupied 
with  other  economic  measures  for  the  material  well-being  of  the 
empire.  His  plans  for  a  government  tobacco  and  brandy  monopoly 
were  rejected,  and  he  let  them  drop.  He  had  also  intended  to 
have  the  empire  buy  up  all  the  railroads  and  make  them  a  state 
monopoly.  He  saw  that  they  were  in  the  hands  of  private  corpora- 
tions which  aimed  to  pay  large  dividends  to  the  stockholders 
rather  than  to  care  for  the  interests  of  the  public.  It  was  also 
believed  that  they  injured  German  trade  by  their  differential  rates, 
often  granting  lower  terms  on  imported  English  goods  than  on 
exported  German  goods.  Local  jealousy  prevented  his  railroad 
bill  from  passing  the  Reichstag.  He  therefore  did  the  next  best 
thing;  he  had  the  kingdom  of  Prussia  buy  up  nearly  all  the  rail- 
roads in  Prussia  and  bring  them  under  state  management;  and 
many  of  the  smaller  states  have  united  their  railroads  to  the  Prus- 
sian system,  and  have  profited  thereby.  But  Saxony  and  the  larger 
south  German  states  still  refuse  to  have  their  railways  pass  under 
Prussian  control. 

Bismarck  was  equally  solicitous  for  the  care  of  working  men 
and  women  in  case  of  sickness,  accident,  and  old  age.  He  first 
(1881)  proposed  compulsory  insurance  against  accidents  for  every- 
one employed  on  railways,  in  mines,  and  in  factories;  the  admin- 
istration was  to  be  in  the  hands  of  a  government  office  and  the 
premium  to  be  paid  by  masters,  workmen,  and  the  state  in  three 


448  GERMANY 

I871-1910 

equal  parts.  But  the  bill  met  bitter  opposition  in  the  Reichstag, 
which  did  not  wish  to  impose  such  a  heavy  financial  burden  on  the 
empire.  The  bill  was  withdrawn ;  in  place  of  it  was  substituted  a 
bill  for  compulsory  insurance  in  the  case  of  sickness.  This  became 
law  in  1883,  and  recognized  the  existing  friendly  and  other  socie- 
ties as  insuring  bodies;  these  were  still  to  enjoy  their  corporate 
existence  and  separate  administration,  but  were  placed  under  state 
control.  One-third  of  the  premium  was  paid  by  the  employer  and 
the  other  two-thirds  by  the  workmen.  In  1884  an  insurance  against 
accidents  was  made  compulsory.  It  applied  at  first  only  to  mines 
and  factories,  but  was  subsequently  extended  to  other  trades;  the 
whole  burden  of  compensation  was  thrown  upon  the  employers, 
who  were  compelled  to  insure  themselves  against  the  payments  for 
which  they  might  become  liable.  Finally,  in  1889  came  the  great- 
est innovation — old  age  pensions.  All  persons  receiving  less  than 
about  ten  dollars  a  week  are  compelled  to  insure  themselves  against 
old  age ;  half  the  premium  is  paid  by  the  workman  and  half  by  the 
employer.  The  pension  begins  at  the  age  of  seventy,  and  is  aug- 
mented by  an  additional  grant  from  the  state  of  about  twelve  dollars 
a  year.  These  measures  of  "  state  socialism  "  have  on  the  whole 
worked  well,  and  have  met  the  approval  of  both  masters  and 
workmen. 

On  March  9,  1888,  all  Germany  was  saddened  by  the  death, 
after  a  short  illness,  of  their  beloved  Emperor  William.  He  had 
almost  reached  his  ninety-first  birthday.  Like  the  great  Hohen- 
zollerns  before  him,  he  had  done  much  to  build  up  and  extend  the 
kingdom  of  Prussia.  But  he  had  done  more :  he  had  restored  polit- 
ical unity  and  order  in  Germany,  which  she  had  really  never  enjoyed 
before,  even  in  the  days  of  Frederick  Barbarossa.  His  character 
and  personality  had  been  ever  such  as  to  command  the  sincerest 
admiration  and  love  of  all  about  him,  from  Bismarck  and  Moltke 
and  Roon  down  to  the  lowest  soldier  or  railway  official. 

William  I.  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Frederick  III.,  who  had 
already  won  fame  for  himself  as  a  general  in  the  wars  of  1866  and 
1870.  When  the  telegram  announcing  his  father's  death  was 
brought  to  him  he  was  at  St.  Remo  in  Italy,  already  stricken  down 
with  the  fatal  cancer  of  the  throat  which  carried  him  off  after  a  sad 
reign  of  ninety-nine  days.  The  German  specialists  had  advised  an 
operation,  but  owing  to  the  advice  of  the  English  physician,  Sir 
Morell  Mackenzie,  it  was  put  off  until  too  late,  though  it  is  by  no 


T  H  E     E  M  P  I R  E  449 

1871-1910 

means  certain  that  even  a  timely  operation  would  have  been  per- 
manently successful.  Frederick's  noble  bearing,  cheerful,  kindly 
manners,  his  liberalism  and  belief  in  parliamentary  government  after 
the  English  model,  and  his  victories  on  the  field  of  battle  had  made 
him  scarcely  less  loved  and  honored  than  his  father.  He  had  been 
the  hope  and  aspiration  of  the  new  generation,  and  it  v/as  sad  indeed 
to  have  him  thus  suddenly  cut  off. 

With  the  accession  of  his  son,  William  IL,  begins  a  new  era 
in  recent  German  history.  His  mother  was  an  Englishwoman,  a 
daughter  of  Queen  Victoria,  and  he  had  been  to  school  in  England. 
In  his  youth,  too,  he  had  been  a  great  admirer  of  Bismarck,  and 
though  he  still  remained  so,  it  soon  became  clear  that  he  intended 
to  be  his  own  master  and  follow  his  own  will.  He  knew  himself 
to  be  possessed  of  far  more  than  average  human  ability.  He  had 
already  been  initiated  by  his  grandfather  into  affairs  of  state,  and 
he  did  not  intend  that  the  chancellor  should  overshadow  in  impor- 
tance and  influence  the  sovereign.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  Bismarck, 
who  had  really  guided  the  state  for  twenty  years  after  he  had 
created  it,  and  had  become  more  tenacious  of  power,  could  not  be 
expected  at  once  to  surrender  the  reins  completely  to  such  a  young 
man  as  the  new  emperor.  The  split  was  inevitable,  and  came  in 
March,  1890.  William  H.  issued  a  proclamation  calling  together 
in  Berlin  an  international  congress  of  workingmen  which  might  con- 
sider the  requirements  and  wishes  of  this  class.  Bismarck  had 
always  opposed  such  international  congresses,  and  openly  said  so. 
He  wished  to  deal  with  the  socialist  agitation  by  reenacting  the  anti- 
socialist  law,  which  would  expire  in  1890.  Soon  afterward  the 
emperor,  in  order  to  control  the  ministers  more  directly  and  lessen 
Bismarck's  power,  ordered  Bismarck  to  draw  up  a  decree  reversing 
a  cabinet  order  of  1852,  which  gave  the  Prussian  minister-president 
the  right  of  being  the  sole  means  of  communication  between  the 
other  ministers  and  the  king.  To  such  a  lessening  of  his  authority 
Bismarck  could  not  consent.  He  refused,  and  was  dismissed  from 
the  position  he  had  held  so  long.  Honors  were  heaped  upon  him 
as  he  retired,  but  they  did  little  to  soften  the  bitterness  of  his  fall. 
The  remaining  eight  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  apparent  isola- 
tion at  Varzin  or  Friedrichsruhe ;  but  his  eyes  were  ever  fixed  on 
the  politics  of  Europe,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  criticise  as  unwise 
some  of  the  steps  of  the  young  man  who  had  dismissed  him. 

Since  Bismarck's  fall  William  H.'s  personality  has  been  one 


450 


GERMANY 


1871-1910 

of  the  chief  factors  in  German  development.  He  thoroughly  be- 
lieves in  the  "  divine-right "  theory  of  kingship,  and  once  wrote  in 
the  Visitors'  Book  of  the  town  hall  in  Munich,  "  The  will  of  the 
king  is  the  supreme  law."  In  speaking  to  a  body  of  recruits  in  1891 
he  told  them  that  "  there  is  now  but  one  enemy  for  you,  and  that  is 
my  enemy.  In  these  times  of  socialistic  intrigue  it  may  happen  that 
I  shall  order  you  to  fire  upon  your  brothers  or  fathers.  God  save 
us  from  it!  But  in  such  a  case  you  are  bound  to  obey  me  without 
murmur."  And  he  allowed  Prince  Henry,  upon  his  departure  for 
China  in  1897,  to  declare  that  his  one  aim  should  be  "  to  assert  in 


foreign  lands  the  evangel  of  your  Majesty's  hallowed  person."  Be- 
lieving seriously,  therefore,  that  he  is  a  "  viceregent  of  God,"  and 
surrounded  by  .a  special  majesty,  he  deems  it  wrong  that  his  person 
should  be  caricatured  or  his  ideas  ridiculed ;  hence  the  too  frequent 
and  often  wholly  ineffective  prosecutions  of  newspapers  for  Majes- 
t'dteheleidigung.  Such  attacks  he  considers  of  a  seditious  revolu- 
tionary character ;  in  fact,  the  French  Revolution  itself  he  has  called 
"  an  unmitigated  crime  against  God  and  man."  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing, therefore,  that  he  should  summon  the  nobles  of  Prussia  to  sup- 
port him  in  the  struggle  for  religion,  for  morality,  and  for  order 
against  the  parties  of  Umsturs,  or  Revolution;  and  in  1895  an 


T  H  E     E  M  P  I  R  E  451 

I071-19IO 

amendment  to  the  Criminal  Code  (nicknamed  the  Umsturs-Vor- 
lage)  was  introduced,  making  it  a  crime  punishable  with  three 
years'  imprisonment  to  attack  religion,  monarchy,  marriage,  the 
family,  or  property  by  abusive  expressions  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
endanger  the  public  peace.  After  heated  debates  and  much  opposi- 
tion the  government  found  it  expedient  to  withdraw  the  bill. 

Emperor  William  is  greatly  interested  in  making  Germany  a 
colonial  power.  "  Our  future  lies  upon  the  sea,"  he  has  said,  and 
this  was  the  significant  motto  over  the  doors  of  the  building  at  the 
Paris  Exposition  of  1900  which  contained  the  interesting  exhibit 
of  the  North  German  Lloyd  Steamship  line,  whose  vessels  run  to 
the  four  quarters  of  the  world.  But  though  Germany  has  secured 
two  enormous  spheres  of  influence  in  Africa,  not  including  Togo- 
land  and  Kamerun  on  the  Guinea  Coast,  a  ninety-nine  years'  lease 
of  Kiaochow  from  China,  and  in  the  Pacific  New  Guinea,  the 
Samoan,  Solomon,  Marshall,  and  some  other  islands,  she  can  never 
become  a  great  colonial  power,  nor  have  colonies  settled  with  Ger- 
mans; for  before  the  German  Empire  had  come  into  existence  all 
good  land  suitable  for  colonial  purposes  habitable  by  Europeans 
had  been  absorbed  by  other  nations  which  had  begun  colonial  ex- 
pansion a  century  and  a  half  earlier.  However  Germany  may  try 
to  foster  colonies,  she  must  still  probably  illustrate  the  truth  of  the 
fable  of  the  hare  and  the  tortoise :  success  must  be  with  the  powers 
that  started  earlier,  though  more  slowly,  in  the  race  for  colonial 
expansion. 

In  February,  1905,  new  commercial  treaties  were  concluded 
with  Austria-Hungary,  Belgium,  Italy,  Russia,  Roumania,  Servia, 
and  Switzerland,  based  on  the  new  German  tariff  of  1902,  and 
increasing  duties  on  agricultural  produce  and  foreign  cattle.  This 
new  tariff  met  with  much  opposition  from  industrial  interests 
wherever  it  affected  the  cost  of  raw  material. 

One  of  the  most  significant  events,  important  in  its  bearing  to 
the  entire  Western  world,  is  Germany's  attitude  toward  the  Eastern 
Question.  It  is  stated  that  political  and  commercial  advantages 
dictate  the  Kaiser's  policy  of  benevolent  protection  toward  the 
Sultan.  Certainly  it  has  seemed  Germany's  policy  to  preserve  the 
mutual  dissension  of  the  other  Continental  powers. 

In  March,  1905,  it  became  known  that  Germany  had  informed 
Sultan  Mulai  Abdul  Aziz  of  Morocco  that  Germany  was  not  in- 
cluded in  agreements  which  France  had  made  with  Great  Britain 


45S  GERMANY 

1671-1910 

and  Spain,  and  on  a  visit  to  Tangier  immediately  afterward  the 
German  emperor  asserted  his  support  of  the  Sultan's  sovereignty 
in  Morocco.  A  general  conference  of  the  interested  powers  was 
decided  upon  to  settle  the  disturbed  conditions,  and  thirteen  delegates 
met  at  Algeciras  early  in  1906.  A  General  Act  was  agreed  upon, 
providing  for  the  establishment  and  supervision  of  a  Moorish  police 
and  a  state  bank.  Similar  agreements  were  also  reached  as  to  the 
mutual  rights  of  the  powers  and  the  reforms  deemed  necessary  in 
Moorish  civil  institutions. 

In  spite  of  the  evident  desire  of  the  emperor  to  g^in  military 
prestige  for  Germany,  the  history  of  that  country  is  one  of  peaceful 
events,  during  the  reign  of  William  II.  Curbed  by  his  advisers,  as 
well  as  the  Powers,  the  emperor  has  mainly  turned  his  attention 
•towards  the  development  of  internal  prosperity,  and  the  cementing 
of  diplomatic  relations.  During  the  early  part  of  1906,  considerable 
interest  was  aroused  over  the  territory  reached  by  the  famous  Bag- 
dad railroad,  by  means  of  which  Germany  hoped  to  gain  a  seaport, 
and  on  May  21,  Germany  stated,  in  a  semi-official  way,  its  position. 

For  a  number  of  years  Germany  has  been  regarded  as  the  home 
of  socialistic  movements,  and  yet,  on  January  25,  1907,  the  election 
returns  showed  heavy  socialistic  losses.  There  was  considerable  dis- 
satisfaction shown  during  1906  and  1907,  with  financial  conditions,  the 
Imperial  debt  being  $1,000,000,000,  but  the  people  resented  the  in- 
creasing of  their  taxes  to  meet  the  interest.  An  important  event  for 
Germany's  colonies,  occurred  when,  on  May  3,  1907,  a  bill  was  passed 
establishing  a  colonial  ministry,  a  measure  that  had  been  up  for  con- 
sideration for  some  years,  and  on  May  18,  Herr  Dernburg  was  ap- 
pointed its  head. 

The  court  scandal  regarding  the  trial  of  editor  Harden  for  libel- 
ing Count  von  Moltke,  excited  wide-spread  interest,  resulting  first  in 
the  conviction  of  the  editor,  but  later  this  decision  was  set  aside  by  the 
German  Imperial  Superior  Court  at  Leipsic,  and  the  prisoner  was 
released,  May  23,  1908,  In  contrast  with  the  bitterness  invoked  by 
this  famous  trial,  was  the  enthusiasm  displayed  by  the  Germans  over 
their  winning  the  three  first  places  in  the  auto  races  for  the  Grand 
Prix  at  Dieppe,  July  7. 

Morocco  affairs  during  1908,  attracted  the  attention  of  all  the 
European  nations,  and  Germany,  while  replying  in  a  conciliatory  spirit 
to  the  Franco-Spanish  note  regarding  proposed  action  by  France  and 
Spain,  utterly  refused  to  recognize  any  special  privileges  to  any  country 


THE    EMPIRE  452a 

1871-1910 

whatever.  Nothing  excited  so  much  controversy,  however,  not  only  in 
Germany,  but  England  as  well,  as  the  famous  interview  purporting  to 
come  from  the  emperor,  in  which  he,  in  order  to  prove  his  friendly 
spirit  to  England,  stated  that  during  the  late  Boer  war,  when  his  grand- 
mother, Queen  Victoria,  almost  heartbroken  over  the  course  of  events, 
wrote  to  him  for  advice,  he  had  gathered  figures,  and  carefully  review- 
ing the  situation,  planned  out  for  her  a  campaign  that  was  essentially 
the  same  later  followed  by  Lord  Roberts.  The  publication  of  this 
interview  in  the  London  Daily  Telegraph  on  October  28,  1908,  was 
provocative  of  such  consternation,  that  diplomats  feared  for  the  re- 
sults. Chancellor  von  Bulow,  on  October  31,  stepped  into  the  breach, 
assuming  all  blame  for  the  publication,  and  offered  his  resignation. 
This  was  not  accepted  by  the  emperor,  however,  but  the  Reichstag 
took  up  the  matter  so  vigorously  that  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the 
government  majority  defeated  the  motion  censuring  in  no  measured 
terms,  the  emperor  for  his  ill-advised  words.  In  order  to  pacify  his 
people,  the  emperor  gave  his  imperial  promise,  on  November  17,  that 
hereafter  all  foreign  affairs  will  be  conducted  through  his  ministers. 

Emperor  William,  more  than  all  the  reigning  rulers,  is  interested 
in  aeronautics,  and  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia  shares  this  interest  with 
his  brother,  and  has  made  a  number  of  trips  with  Count  Zeppelin. 
During  Venezuelan  troubles,  Germany  participated  but  little  in  the 
active  movements  of  the  Powers,  but  on  February  3,  1909,  signed  a 
treaty  with  that  country  by  which  it  obtained  "most  favored  nation" 
treatment.  Morocco  troubles  were  settled  during  this  same  month, 
when  Germany  signed  a  treaty  with  France.  The  interests  of  Ger- 
many were  looked  after  in  German  Southwest  Africa,  by  a  rescript 
given  out  by  the  emperor  during  the  early  part  of  the  year,  which  es- 
tablished a  German  imperial  monopoly  on  the  trade  in  diamonds  found 
there.  The  arrival  of  the  King  and  Queen  of  England  in  Berlin  on 
February  9,  was  the  occasion  of  much  rejoicing  and  civic  celebration. 
February  was  noted  during  the  year  in  question  by  two  other  events, 
the  crossing  of  the  Alps  by  Oscar  Erlesloch  in  a  balloon,  the  "Ber- 
lin," during  which  time  he  remained  in  the  air  for  thirty  hours; 
and  the  signing  of  a  patent  agreement  at  Washington,  between 
the  United  States  and  Germany. 

Germany  was  interested  in  the  Chinese  Railroad  concessions,  and 
during  May,  bank  representatives  from  it,  England  and  France,  met 
in  Berlin  to  arrange  a  settlement  of  the  pending  contracts.  The  em- 
peror during  the  latter  part  of  1909,  came  out  openly  in  his  expression 


452b  GERMANY 

1871-1910 

of  hope  that  the  Triple  Alliance  would  continue  to  assist  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  world's  peace.  Germany  and  the  United  States,  after 
long  and  serious  consideration  of  their  relative  tariffs,  decided  to  ex- 
change the  minimum  rates,  signing  an  agreement  to  this  effect,  Feb- 
ruary 3,  1910.  One  of  the  notable  events  of  the  early  part  of  1910, 
was  the  visit  of  Col.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  formerly  President  of  the 
United  States,  to  Berlin,  during  May,  when  he  was  accorded  the  most 
distinguished  honors. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


No  attempt  has  been  made  to  include  in  this  bibliography  more  than  a 
representation  of  the  many  excellent  works  on  Germany  and  Germany's  history 
which  her  own  unrivalled  scholarship  has  produced.  Many  of  these,  despite 
their  intrinsic  value  and  historic  importance,  remain  accessible  only  in  the 
original.  It  is  also  true  that  many,  on  account  of  their  Teuton  seriousness  of 
style,  are  rather  unsuited  to  the  needs  of  the  general  reader  though  inestimable 
to  the  specialist  or  student. 


GENERAL  HISTORIES 

Bryce,  James. — "Holy  Roman  Empire."    New  York  and  London,  1887. 

This  scholarly  classic  is  a  portrayal  of  the  relations  of  Rome  and  Germany 
during  the  Middle  Ages.  Its  reading  should  precede  the  study  of  the 
general  history  of  Germany. 

Dunham,  S.  A. — "  A  History  of  the  Germanic  Empire."    3  vols.   London,  1834. 
Offers  a  clear  and  judicious  narrative  of  the  mediaeval  period.     For  the 
modern  period  the  reader  must  seek  another  author. 

Henderson,  E.  F. — "  A  Short  History  of  Germany."  2  vols.  New  York,  1901. 
A  brief  but  excellent  treatment  exhibiting  modem  critical  scholarship  at  its 
best.    Henderson's  works  are  all  admirable. 

Home,  Charles  T. — "  The  Story  of  Germany." 
A  good  one  volume  account. 

Janssen,  Johannes. — "  History  of  the  German  People."  10  vols.  St.  Louis,  1900. 
A  work  of  consummate  ability.  The  author  is  a  Roman  Catholic  and  his 
views  show  strong  conviction.  This  history  takes  high  rank,  both  in  scholar- 
ship and  literary  quality,  and  it  should  be  consulted  for  comparison  on  all 
imporant  points.  The  account  of  the  conditions  in  Germany  before  Luther 
is  the  most  complete  to  be  found. 

Lewis,  Charlton  T. — "A  History  of  Germany  from  the  Earliest  Times."    New 
York,  1874. 
Founded  on  Miiller's  German  work.    A  good  brief  history. 

Linder,   Theodore. — "  Geschichte   des  deutschen   Retches  votn   Ende   des  vier- 
gehnten   Jahrhunderts   bis   zur  Reformation."    Vols.    I    and    II.     Braun- 
schweig, 1875- 1880. 
A  study  of  the  sources,  with  much  new  material.    A  monumental  and  even- 
tually a  voluminous  work,  for  reference  rather  than  for  general  perusal. 

Menzel,  Wolfgang. — "  The  History  of  Germany  from  the  Earliest  Period  to  the 
Present  Time."     (Translated   from  the  fourth  German  edition  by  Mrs. 
George  Horrocks.)     3  vols.    London,  1849. 
A  satisfactory  account  down  to  the  year  1848.    In  style  very  readable. 

455 


456  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Sime,  James. — "History  of  Germany."    New  York,  1875. 

The  details  of  the  history  of  Germany,  considered  as  a  confederation,  are 
too  numerous  to  make  the  account  easily  compressible  within  a  small  manual ; 
but  this  volume  is  useful  and  interesting,  although  very  brief. 


SPECIAL  PERIODS 

Armstrong,  Edward. — "The  Emperor  Charles  V." 
Beard,  Charles. — "  Martin  Luther."    London. 

Probably  the  best  English  account  of  Luther  before  his  retirement  to  the 

Wartburg. 
Bigelow,   Poultney. — "History  of  the  German  Struggle  for  Liberty."    4  vols. 
London,  1905. 

One  of  the  most  important  and  reliable  of  modem  works. 
"  Bismarck,  The  Man  and  the  Statesman :  Reflections,  etc,  by  Himself."    Eng- 
lish translation.    2  vols.    London,  1898. 
"  Letters." 

The  study  of  the  individual  vitalizes  history. 
Busch,  M. — "  Bismarck :  Some  Secret  Pages  of  his  History."    3  vols.    London, 

1898. 
Carlyle,  Thomas. — "  History  of  Friedrich  II.,  called  Frederick  the  Great." 

Should  be  included  in  any  bibliography  of  the  subject,  but  rather  inadequate 

as  history  though  acceptable  as  literature. 
Comyn,   Sir   Robert. — ^"History  of  the   Western   Empire."     2   vols.     London, 

1851. 
Coxe,  William. — "History  of  the  House  of  Austria."    London,  1860-1868. 

The  only  complete  history  of  the  house  of  Austria  in  English. 
Dahlinger,  C.  W. — "  The  German  Revolution  of  1849."     1903. 

As  its  sub-title  indicates,  this  is  an  account  of  the  final  struggle  in  Baden 

for  the  maintenance  of  Germany's  first  national  representative  government. 
Debidour.— " //w/o»>^  diplomatique  de   f Europe,   1814-1878."    Vols.    I   and   II, 
Paris,  1891. 

Contains  an  account  of  German  diplomacy  during  the  critical  period  of  the 

nineteenth  century. 
Deniche,  H. — "Von  der  deutschen  Hansa:  eine  Historische  Skizze." 
Deventer,  M.  L.  van. — "  Cinquante  Annees  de  I'Histoire  Federate  de  I'AlUmagne. 
Etude  historique  et  politique."    Brussels,  1870. 

The  best  account  of  the  Confederation  from  1815  to  1866. 
Droysen,  Joh.  Gust. — "  Das  Leben  des  Feldmarschalls  Graf  en  York  von  Warten- 
burg."    3  vols.     Berlin,  1851. 

The  life  of  York  offers  many  sidelights  on  the  Germany  of  his  time. 
Droysen,  Gustav. — "  Gustav  Adolph."    2  vols.    Leipsic,  1869. 

A  discussion  of  the  political  considerations  and  situations  into  which  Gustavus 

Adolphus  entered,  thus  forming  an  important  contribution  to  the  literature 

of  the  period. 
Duncker,  Max. — "  Aus  der  Zeit  Friedrich  des  Grossen  und  Friedrich  Wilhelms 
III:    Abhandlungen  zur  preussischen  Geschichte."    Leipsic,  1876. 

Essays  in  historic  criticism. 
Elberstadt. — "Der  deutsche  KapitaUmarkt."    Leipsig,  1901. 

A  very  thorough  survey  of  the  capitalization  of  the  entire  German  industry 

and  the  money  market  in  all  its  relations  to  the  life  of  the  people. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  467 

Eltzbacher,  O. — "Modern  Germany."    London,  1905. 
Eugene,  Prince  of  Savoy. — "  Memoirs." 

Fisher,    Herbert    A.    L. — "  Studies    in    Napoleonic    Statesmanship — Germany." 

Oxford,  1903. 

This  is  a  study  in  civil   and  administrative  history,  being  an  account  of 

the  growth,  character  and  influence  of  the  Napoleonic  system  in  Germany. 

Frederick    the    Great.— "  Works,"     ("Correspondence,"    "History    of   my   own 

Times,"  etc.)     (Translated  by  Thomas  Holcroft.)     12  vols. 
Freytag,  Gustav. — "  Bilder  aus  der  deutschen  Vergangenheit."    5  vols.    Leipsic, 
1884-1886. 

"  Neue  Bilder  aus  dent  Leben  des  deutschen  Volkes."    Leipsic,  1862. 

These  volumes  of  essays  or  historical  pictures  are  charming  in  style  and 
well  deserve  their  extraordinary  popularity  with  cultured  readers. 
Gardiner,  Samuel  R. — "The  Thirty  Years'  War."     London,  1874. 

A   good    summary,   giving   due   emphasis    to   the    important   points    in    the 
progress  of  the  war  and  the  general  results. 
Giesebreckt,    Wilhelm    von. — "  Geschichte    der    deutschen    Kaiserzeit."     5    vols. 
1863-1861. 
Date  considered,  this  remains  one  of  the  great  modern  works  on  the  mediaeval 
history  of  Germany. 
Gindely,  Anton, — "  History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War."     (Translated  by  Andrew 
Ten  Brook.)     2  vols.     New  York. 
This  translation  constitutes  the  most  complete  and  scholarly  account  to  be 
had  in  English. 
Hausser,   Ludwig. — "Deutsche   Geschichte  vom    Tode   Friedrichs   des   Grossen 
bis  sur  Grundung  des  deutschen  Bundes."    4  vols.    Berlin,  1863. 
A   valuable   history  by  an   able  historian   specialist    for   the   Revolutionary 
period. 
Headlam,  J.  W. — "The  Foundation  of  the  German  Empire,  1817-1871."     Cam- 
bridge, 1897. 
Henderson,   E.   F. — "History   of  Germany  in  the   Middle   Ages."    New   York, 

1894. 

Henderson's  works  will  always  be  found  adequate  in  their  presentation  of 

the  facts  within  their  .subject  limits. 
Hozier,  H.  M.— "The  Seven  Weeks'  War."     2  vols.     Philadelphia,  1867. 

One  of  the  best  accounts  of  the  antecedents  and  incidents  of  the  war  of 

1866,  graphic  and  readable,  and  well  supplied  with  maps  and  plans. 
Junck,    Karl. — "Der    deutsche-fransosische    Krieg,    1870    und    187 1."     2    vols. 
Leipsic,  1876. 

A  very  satisfactory  account  from  the  Teuton  standpoint ;  commendable  for 

its  historical  and  political  phases. 
Koser,  Reinhold. — "  Friedrich  der  Grosse  als  Kronprins."    Stuttgart,  1901. 

A  small  classic  by  perhaps  the  greatest  living  authority. 
Koepp,  Friedrich. — "Die  R'dmer  in  Deutschland."     1905. 

A  useful  little  monograph  on  the  Romans  in  Germany. 
Lecomte,  Ferdinand. — "  Guerre  de  la  Prusse  et  de  I' Italic  contre  I'Autriche  et  la 
Confederation  Germanique  en  1866."    2  vols.     Paris,  1868. 

An   historical   and   critical    account  of   the   war   of    1866,   with   maps   and 

plans. 
Lowe,  Charles.—"  Prince  Bismarck :  an  Historical  Biography."    2  vols.    London, 
1886. 

A  biography   of   real   excellence.    Lowe   was   Berlin   correspondent   of  the 

London  Times. 


468  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Malleson,  G.  B. — "The  Refounding  of  the  German  Empire,  1848-1871."    London, 

1893. 
A  useful  and  in  every  way  available  book. 
Marcks,  R — "Germany  and  England:  Their  Relations  in  the  Great  Crises  of 
European  History,  1500-1900."    London,  1900. 
This  is  a  translation  from  one  of  the  foremost  German  historians. 

Mettemich,    Prince. "Memoirs,    1773-1815."     (Edited   by    Prince    Mettemich 

and  translated  by  Mrs.  Alexander  Napier.)    4  vols.    New  York  and  Lon- 
don, 1880- 1881. 
Invaluable  material  for  the  historian  and  extremely  interesting  to  the  reader 
of  German  History. 
Moltke,  H.  C.  B.  von. — "  The  Franco-German  War."    London,  1893. 

Translation  by  A.  Forbes. 
Mueller,  Wilhelm. — "  Political  History  of  Recent  Times  (1816-1875),  with  Special 
Reference  to  Germany."     (Translated  by  John  P.  Peters.)     New  York, 
1882. 
Murdock,  Harold. — "The  Reconstruction  of  Europe."    Boston,  1892. 

The  period  of  the  Second  Empire. 
Ranke,   Leopold   von. — "History   of  the   Reformation   in   Germany."     3   vols. 
London,  1845- 1847. 
Commentaries  on  the  Reformation.    A  book  of  permanent  value,  exhibiting 
Germany's  relations  to  the  rest  of  Europe  during  the  Lutheran  Revolt. 

"  Memoirs  of  the  House  of  Brandenburg  and  History  of  Prussia  during  the 

Seventeenth  and  Eighteenth  Centuries."    3  vols.    London,  1849. 
This  translation  by  Sir  Alexander  and  Lady  Duff  Gordon  constitutes  the 
most  valuable  account  in  English  of  the  history  of  Brandenburg  and  Prussia 
before  the  Seven  Years'  War. 

"  Zur  deutsche  Geschichte  vont  religions  Frieden  bis  zum  dreissinfdhrigen 

Krieg."    Berlin,  1870. 
Deals  with  the  period  from  1552  to  1618  and  forms  an  introduction  to  the 
study  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

"  Denk  wiirdig  keiten  des  Staatskanzlers  Fiirsten  von  Hardenherg."    5  vols. 

Leipsic,  1877. 
A  valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  Napoleonic  period. 

"  Ansprung  und  Beginn  der  Revolutionskriege,  1791-1792."    Berlin,  1878. 

A  remarkable  presentation. 
Raumer,  Friedrich  von. — "  Geschichte  der  Hohenstaufen  und  ihrer  Zeit."  6  vols. 
Leipsic,  1825. 
Exhibits   German    scholarship   at   its   best    and    improved   by    an   eloquent 
descriptive  style.     In  treatment  it  is  eloquent  and  impressive. 
Richter. — "  Annalen  der  deutschen  Geschichte  in  Mittelalter." 

An  incomparable  work. 
Robertson,  William. — "  History  of  the  Reign  of  Emperor  Charles  V."    3  vols. 

London,  1888. 
Riistow,  R. — "  The  War  on  the  Rhine  Frontier."    Translated  from  the  German 
by  J.  G.  Needham.    3  vols.    London,  1871-1872. 
A  political  and  military  history. 
Schifer,  Arnold. — "  Geschichte  des  siebenjdhrigen  Krieg."    2  vols.    Berlin,  1867- 

1874. 
Important  as  a  diplomatic  history.    Not  entertaining,  but  valuable  to  the 
student. 
Seeley,  J.   R. — "Life   and  Times  of  Stein;   or  Germany   and   Prussia  in  the 
Napoleonic  Age."    3  vols.    London  and  Boston,  1879. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  459 

Of  striking  historic  value.    The  work  is  based  on  original  materials  and  is 

judicial  in  tone.    It  furnishes  a  good  account  of  the  reform  which  brought 

about  Prussia's  greatness. 
Seignobos,  Charles. — "  Political  History  of  Europe  since  1814." 

To  be  consulted  for  the  portion  dealing  with  German  affairs. 
Simon,  E. — "  Emperor  William  and  his  Reign."    2  vols.     Paris,  1886. 
Smith,  Munroe. — "  Bismarck  and  German  Unity."    New  York  and  London. 
Stael,  Madame  de — "  Germany."    3  vols.    London,  1813. 

The  literary  genius  of  its  author  makes  this  a  work  of  permanent  interest. 
Stirling-Maxwell,   Sir   W.— "  The   Cloister  Life   of  the   Emperor   Charles   V." 

London,  1852. 
"Don  John  of  Austria."    2  vols. 

Both  works  are  valuable  as  historical  bibliography. 
Sybel,  Heinrich  von. — "The  Founding  of  the  German  Empire."     5  vols.     New 
York,  1890- 1898. 

This  is  a  translation  by  Perrin  and  Bradford  of  Von  Sybel's  important  and 

thoroughly  modern  work. 
Treitschke,  Heinrich  von. — "Deutsche  Geschichte  im  neunsehnten  Jahrhundert." 
Vols.  I  to  HL   Leipsic,  1879-1886. 

Designed  to  exhibit  the  origin  and  characteristics  of  the  new  life  of  Ger- 
many  and   considered   the   most  complete   general   history   of   this   period. 

Strongly  Prussian. 

"  Zehn  Jahre  deutscher  K'dmffe,  1865-1874.     2te  AuH.,  fortgefiihrt  bis  sum 

Jahre   iS^g."    Berlin,  1879. 

Essays  on  the  political  problems  arising  between  the  Danish  war  and  the 

complete  establishment  of  the  empire. 
Tuttle,  Herbert. — "  History  of  Prussia  to  the  Accession  of  Frederick  the  Great, 

1 134-1740." 
"  History  of  Prussia  under  Frederick  the  Great,  1740-1756."    3  vols. 

The  best  works  in  English,  unfortunately  cut  short  by  the  death  of  the 

author.    Judgments  and  statements  not  always  unbiased,  however. 
"  German  Political  Leaders."    New  York  and  London,  1876.  , 

Descriptive  essays  offering  critical  analysis  and  comparison. 
Vehse,  Dr.  E. — "  Memoirs  of  the  Court,  Aristocracy  and  Diplomacy  of  Austria." 
(Translated  from  the  German  by  Franz  Demmler.)    2  vols.    London,  1856. 

A  picture  of  society  and  public  characters  in  the  whole  period  of  Austrian 

history  from  Maximilian  I  to  the  death  of  Francis  H. 
Walker,  F.— "The  Protestant  Reformation."     New  York. 

Whitcomb,  Merrick. — "  Source  Book  of  the  German  Renaissance."    Philadelphia. 
Zimmem,  Helen. — "The  Hansa  Towns."    New  York,  1891. 

The  Hansa  was  one  of  the  earliest  representatives  of  the  federal  spirit.    This 

is  an  interesting  study,  but  presupposes,  of  course,  some  knowledge  of  the 

general  history  of  Germany. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Bax,  E.  B.— "  German  Society  at  the  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages."    1894. 

This  is  a  study  of  the  social  side  of  the  Reformation  and  deals  with  the 

underlying  causes  of  the  general  disintegration  of  the  time. 
Baring-Gould,  S. — "Germany,  Past  and  Present."    2  vols.    London,  1881. 

A  careful  study,  including  a  valuable  description  of  the  peasant  proprietors 

and  the  general  characteristics  of  modem  Germany. 


460  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Battels. — "  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur."    Leipsig,  1902. 

The  most  recent  history  of  German  literature. 
Dawson,  W.  H. — "  Bismarck  and  State  Socialism."    London,  1890. 

A  portrait  of  Germany  since  1870  in  its  social  and  economic  aspects. 
"  Germany  and  the  Germans."    2  vols.    London,  1894. 

Excellent  in  arrangement  and  substantial  in  its  treatment  of  the  phases  of 

national  life  selected  for  discussion. 
Franckc,    Kuno. — "  History   of   German   Literature    as    Determined    by    Social 

Forces."    New  York. 
Lair. — "  L'impirialisme  Altemand."    Paris,  1903. 

Furnishes  a  review  of  the  extraordinary  results  of  the  last  twenty  years  in 

the  industrial  and  commercial  development  of  Germany. 
Lotz. — "  Virkehrsentwicklung  in  Deutschland,  1800-igoo."   Leipsig,  1900. 

A  popular  presentation  of  the  growth  of  railways  and  the  part  they  play 

in  Germany's  industrial  development.    A  brief  sketch  of  the  transportation 

system  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  included. 
Williams,  E.  E. — "  Made  in  Germany."    London,  1896. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abderrahman,  Saracen  viceroy:  invades 
France,  73 

Adalbert,  Archbishop  of  Bremen:  ap- 
pointed, 130;  his  relations  with 
Henry  IV  of  Germany,  132 

Adamites,  The,  208 

Adelheid  (Adelaide),  Saint:  career  of, 
III,  116,  118 

Adolf  of  Nassau,  King  of  Germany: 
reign  of,  183 

Adolph :  see  Ataulf 

Adrian  I,  Pope:  appeals  to  Charle- 
magne, 79 

Adrian  IV  (Nicholas  Breakspeare), 
Pope:  policy  of,  148,  150;  death  of, 

15 
Adrian  VI,  Pope:  pontificate  of,  245 
Adrianople:  battle  of   (378  a.d.),  34 
^dui :   at   war  with  the   Arverni,   10 
^neas    Sylvius :    see    Pius    II    (iEneas 

Sylvius),  Pope 
Aetius :  his  campaign  against  Attila,  41 
Agnes,  wife  of  Henry  III :   regent  for 

her  son,   131 
Aistulf,    King    of    the    Longobards :    at 

war  with  the  Popes,  76 
Aix    (Aquae    Sextias)  :    battle    of    (102 

B.C.),  4 
Aix-Ia-Chapelle :   Charlemagne    removes 

court   to,  86;    taken   by   Lothar   of 

France,   116;  taken  by  the  French, 

356 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  Peaces  of:  (1668),  300; 

(1748),  332 
Alaric  I,  Visigothic  king:  career  of,  35 
Alaric  II,  Visigothic  king:  death  of,  47 
Albert   I,    King    of    Germany :    receives 

Styria,  181 ;  accession  of,  183 
Albert  II,  King  of  Germany:  his  cam- 
paigns   against    the    Hussites,    208, 

210;  reign  of,  212 
Albert,   Count  of  Austria:   assisted  by 

Conrad  II  in  his  war  with  Stephen 

of  Hungary,  126 


Albert,  Duke  of  Austria:  conspiracy  of, 
198 

Albert,  Duke  of  Austria:  his  quarrels 
with  Frederick  III  of  Germany, 
215 

Albert  the  Bear,  Count  of  Branden- 
burg: career  of,  143,  149,  152 

Albert,  surnamed  Alcibiades,  Margrave 
of  Brandenburg:  defeat  of,  258 

Albert  the  Degenerate,  Landgrave  of 
Thuringia  and  Count  of  Meissen: 
sells  Thuringia  and  Meissen,  183 

Albert,  Archbishop  of  Mayence :  con- 
trols the  sale  of  indulgences  in 
Germany,  236 

Albert  Achilles,  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg: wars  of,  214 

Albertus  Magnus,  Bishop  of  Ratisbon : 
account  of,  178 

Alboin,  King  of  the  Longobards :  estab- 
lishes his  kingdom  in  Italy,  51 

Alcuin :  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne,  86 

Alemanni :  origin  and  location  of,  27 ; 
plunder  Roman  territory,  29;  de- 
feated by  the  Franks,  47 

Alessandria:  founded,  152 

Alexander  II,  Pope :  opposes  Henry  IV 
of  Germany,  132 

Alexander  III,  Pope:  his  quarrel  with 
Frederick  Barbarossa,  151,  153 

Alexander  V,  anti-Pope:  election  of, 
201 

Alexander  I,  Emperor  of  Russia:  in- 
trigues of,  364;  his  meeting  with 
Napoleon  at  Tilsit,  373;  opposes 
Napoleon,  379 

Alexander  II,  Emperor  of  Russia:  in- 
fluence of  his  policy,  404 

AH  (Damad  Ali),  Grand  Vizier:  cam- 
paign of,  319 

Aliso:  founded,  14 

Alphonso  (X)  the  Wise,  King  of  Leon 
and  Castile:  elected  King  of  Ger- 
many, 171 

Alsace-Lorraine:  description  of,  426 
note 


488 


464 


INDEX 


Alsatia:  occtipied  by  Marshal  Horn, 
28s 

Amadeus  VIII,  Duke  of  Savoy:  see 
Felix  V  (Amadeus  VIII  of  Savoy), 
Pope 

Amalaric,  Visigothic  king:  under 
guardianship  of  Theodoric,  47; 
reign  of,  48 

Amalasunta,  mother  of  Athalaric:  re- 
gency of,  48 

Anabaptists:  sketch  of,  242,  250 

Anaclete    II,    anti-Pope:    pontificate    of, 

143 

Anastasius  I,  Emperor  of  the  East:  his 
relations  with  Clovis,  47 

Ancona:  siege  of  (1166),  152 

Andemach:  battles  of  (876  a,d.)}  96; 
(939  A.D.),  no 

Angles:  location  of,  6 

Anna  of  Brittany:  sketch  of,  219 

Anna  Ivanovna,  Empress  of  Russia: 
forms  alliance  with  Germany,  324 

Aqux  Sextiae:  see  Aix 

Aquileia:  sieges  of  (180  A.D.).  26;  (452 
A.D.).  42;  battle  of  (394  A.D.),  35 

Aragis,  Duke  of  Benevento:  submits  to 
Charlemagne,  82 

Arbogast:  career  of,  34 

Arcadius,  Emperor  of  the  East:  reign 
of,  35 

Ardaric:  unites  the  German  tribes,  43 

Arduin,  King  of  Lombardy  (Marquis  of 
Ivrea)  :  career  of,  121 

Arelat:  see  Burgundy 

Ariovistus,  chief  of  the  Suevi:  aids  the 
Sequani,  10;  defeated  by  Julius 
Caesar,  12 

Amdt,  Ernst  Moritz:  his  efforts  to  lib- 
erate Germany,  375,  381,  394 

Amheim,  Baron  Johann  Georg  von:  in 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  285 

Arnold  of  Brescia:  doctrines  of,  146; 
death  of,  148 

Amulf,  Holy  Roman  Emperor:  receives 
duchy  of  Carinthia,  97;  becomes 
King  of  Germany,  98;  crowned  em- 
peror,  100 

Amulf  the  Bad,  Duke  of  Bavaria:  pur- 
chases peace  with  the  Hungarians, 
100;  defies  Conrad,  104;  acknowl- 
edges Henry  I  of  Germany,  105 

Amulf,  Bishop  of  Metz:  educates  Dago- 
bert,  65 


Arvemi :  at  war  with  the  iEdui,  10 

Aspem:  battle  of  (1809),  377 

Ataulf  (Adolph),  Visigothic  king:  es- 
tablishes Visigoths  in  southern 
Gaul,  37;  death  of,  39 

Athanaric,  Visigothic  king:  defeated  by 
the  Huns,  33 

Attila,  King  of  the  Huns:  career  of,  40 

Auerstadt:  battle  of  (1806),  372 

Auerswald,  Hans  Adolf  Erdmann  von: 
death  of,  400 

Augsburg:  siege  of  (955  a.d.),  112; 
submits  to  the  emperor,  255;  re- 
ceives Gustavus  Adolphus,  282; 
taken  by  Bavaria,  371 

Augsburg,  Diet  of  (1530),  248 

Augsburg,  Religious  Peace  of  (1555), 
259 

Augsburg  Confession,  The    (1530),  248 

Augsburg  Interim,  The  (1548),  257 

Augustus  (II)  the  Strong,  King  of  Po- 
land: reign  of,  317 

Augustus  III,  King  of  Poland:  career 
of,  306,  323;  death  of,  345 

Augustus,  Caesar  Octavius,  Emperor  of 
Rome:  condition  of  Germany 
under,  14;  mourns  for  the  legions 
of  Varus,  19 

Aurelian,  Emperor  of  Rome:  makes 
treaty  with  Goths,  29 

Aurelles  de  Paladine:  in  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  425 

Aurogallus:  assists  Luther,  244 

Austerlitz:  battle  of  (1805),  367 

Austria:  founded,  116;  made  a  duchy, 
149;  Rudolf  invested  with,  181; 
under  Rudolf  II  of  Germany,  263; 
under  Ferdinand  II  of  Germany, 
270;  principal  power  in  Germany, 
298;  reforms  of  Joseph  II  in,  349 

Autharis,  King  of  the  Longobards :  mar- 
ries Theodolina,  54 

Avars:  harass  the  Longobards,  51; 
their  relations  with  Sigbert,  61; 
their  wars  with  Charlemagne,  83 

B 

Baden:  peasant  war  in,  243;  enters  the 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  371; 
becomes  part  of  the  empire,  427 

Baldwin  (V)  le  Debonnairc,  Count  of 
Flanders:  revolt  of,  130 


INDEX 


465 


Baldwin,  Achbishop  of  Treves:  intrigue 

of,  i8s 
Bale:  see  Basel 
Baltic  Provinces:  lost  to  Germany,  262; 

taken  by  Peter  the  Great,  317 
Bamberg:   taken   by   Bernard  of   Saxe- 

Weimar,  285 
Baner,  Johann :  campaigns  of,  280,  289 
Barbara,  wife  of  Sigismund:  conspiracy 

of,  211 
Barbary  States:  Charles  V's  war  with 

the,  251 
Barbiano,  General:  at  battle  of  Brescia, 

199 
Bart,  Jean :  defeat  of,  307 
Basel  (Bale):  battle  of  (57  b.c),  ii;  a 

member   of  the   Union   of   Rhenish 

Cities,  17s 
Basel   (Bale),  Council  of  (1431),  210 
Basel  (Bale),  Treaties  of:  (1499),  227; 

(1795),  357 
Batavia:   location  of,  6;  join  Gauls   in 

revolt   against   Rome,   23;    subdued 

by  Cerealis,  24;  relation  of,  to  the 

Franks,  28 
Batavian    Republic,    The:     established, 

357 
Bavaria:     incorporated    with     Prankish 

kingdom,     83;     under     Henry     the 

Lion,  144;  given  to  Otto  of  Wittels- 

bach,  152;  champion  of  the  Popes, 

261 ;    recognized    as       a    kingdom, 

367;    becomes   part   of   the    empire, 

427 
Bazaine,     Frangois     Achille:     in     the 

Franco- Prussian  War,  421 
Beatrix,  Countess  of  Tuscany:  marries 

Godfrey  of  Lorraine,  130 
Beatrix,  Princess  of  Burgundy:  wife  of 

Frederick  Barbarossa,  149 
Beauharnais,  Eugene  de :  made  viceroy 

of  Italy,  371 ;  campaigns  of,  376,  382 
Beauharnais,  Stephanie  de:  marriage  of, 

371 
Beaumont:  battle  of  (1870),  423 
Beaune    la    Roland:    battle    of    (1870), 

425 
Bebel,    Ferdinand    August:    leads    the 

Social  Democrats,  438 
Belfort:  siege  of  (1871),  425 
Belgrade:  sieges  of  (1688),  304;  (1717), 

320;  (1789),  351 
Belisarius:  career  of,  49 


Bellevue:  surrender  at,  424 

Bern,  Josef:  in  the  Hungarian  revolt, 
401 

Benedek,  Ludwig  von :  campaigns  of, 
410 

Benedetti,  Count  Vincent:  negotiations 
of,  416 

Benedict  VHI,  Pope:  implores  the  as- 
sistance of  Henry  II  of  Germany, 
122 

Benedict  IX,  Pope:  bans  Archbishop 
Heribert  of  Milan,  127 

Benedict  XII,  Pope:  his  relations  with 
Lewis  of  Bavaria,  189 

Benedict  XIII,  anti-Pope:  at  Avignon, 
198;  deposed,  201;  in  Spain,  204 

Benevento:  battle  of  (1266),  169 

Bennigsen,  Rudolf  von:  leads  the  Na- 
tional Liberals,  446  note 

Berbers:  origin  of,  49 

Bercngar  (I)  of  Friuli,  King  of  Italy: 
usurps  power,  98;  reign  of,  99 

Berengar  II,  King  of  Italy:  demands 
hand  of  Adelheid,  iii;  banished,  114 

Berezina:  battle  of  the  (1812),  380 

Berlin:  siege  of  (1760),  341;  Napoleon 
in,  373;  rising  in  (1848),  398 

Bernadotte,  Jean  Baptiste  Jules :  see 
Charles  (XIV)  John,  King  of  Swe- 
den 

Bernard,  King  of  Lombardy:  conspiracy 
of,  90 

Bernard,  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimer :  joins 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  281 ;  takes  com- 
mand of  the  Protestant  forces,  284; 
his  alliance  with  Louis  XIII  of 
France,  289;  death  of,  290 

Bernard,  Saint,  Abbot  of  Clauvaux: 
preaches  the  second  crusade,  145 

Bernburg:  siege  of  (1809),  376 

Bernhard,  Duke  of  Saxony:  power  of, 
130 

Bertha,  wife  of  Henry  IV:  sketch  of, 

132 

Berthold,  Count  of  Suabia:  at  the  battle 
of  the  Inn,  104 

Berthold,  Archbishop  of  Mayence:  at 
the  Diet  of  Worms,  226 

Bethlen  Gabar:  revolt  of,  267;  makes 
peace  with  Ferdinand  II  of  Ger- 
many, 273 

Beust,  Count  Friedrich  Ferdinand  von: 
reforms  of,  415 


466 


INDEX 


Bible:  translated  into  Gothic,  32;  trans- 
lated by  Luther,  244.  251 
Bismarck  (Bismarck-Schonhausen), 

Otto  Eduard  Leopold,  Prince  von: 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  Prussian 
government,     407;     policy    of,    408 
note;  guides    Prussian   policy,  412; 
becomes     chancellor,    413;     in     the 
negotiations  with  France,  417 
Bleda,  brother  of  Attila:  death  of,  40 
Blenheim:  battle  of  (1704),  313 
Bliicher,    Gebhard    Leberecht    von :    his 
campaigns  against  the  French,  372, 

383.  384,  387 

Blum,  Robert:  death  of,  401 

Boethius,  Anicius  Manlius  Severinus: 
execution  of,  48 

Bohemia:  first  settlers  in,  6;  becomes 
tributary  to  Germany,  96;  under 
Ferdinand  II  of  Germany,  268 

Boleslav  I,  King  of  Poland :  secures  in- 
dependence for  his  country,  120;  his 
wars  with  Henry  II,  121 ;  death  of, 

125 

Bonaparte,  Jerome:  sketch  of,  374; 
leaves  Westphalia,  386 

Bonaparte,  Joseph:  negotiates  the  Peace 
of  Luneville,  364 ;  made  King  of  Na- 
ples, 371 ;  made  King  of  Spain,  375 

Bonaparte,  Louis:  made  King  of  Hol- 
land, 371 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon:  see  Napoleon  (I) 
Bonaparte 

Boniface  (Winifred),  Saint:  career  of, 
72 

Bonifacius  IX,  Pope:  deposes  Wenzel, 
198 

Bora,  Catharine  von:    marriage,  245 

Borodino:  battle  of  (1812),  380 

Boii :  location  of,  6 

Bourbaki,  Charles  Denis  Sauter:  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  425 

Brahe,  Tycho  de:  encouraged  by  Rudolf 
II  of  Germany,  263 

Brandenburg:  conquest  of,  107;  given 
to  Lewis,  190;  secured  by  Frederick 
of  Hohenzollem,  206 

Breisach  (Brisach  or  Alt-Breisach) : 
sieges  of  (939  A.D.),  no;  (1637- 
1638),  289 

Breitenfeld:  battle  of  (1631),  280 

Bremen:  a  member  of  the  Hanseatic 
League,  174 


Brescia:  battle  of  (1401),  199 

Breslau :  taken  by  Frederick  the  Great, 
(1740),  329;  taken  by  the  Austrians 
(1757).  337',  taken  by  the  Prussians 
(1757),  338 

Broglie,  Victor  Franqois,  Duke  of:  in 
the  Seven  Years'  War,  341 

Brothers  of  the  Sword,  173,  261 

Brunhilde :  sketch  of,  62 

Bruno,  Archbishop  of  Cologne:  vice- 
regent  of  Germany,  113 

Bruno  of  Carinthia:  see  Gregory  V 

Brunswick,  Charles  William  Ferdinand, 
Duke  of:  campaign  of,  372;  his  ef- 
forts to  liberate  Germany,  375,  377; 
death  of,  390 

Brunswick,  Ferdinand,  Duke  of:  in  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  338,  342 

Biilow,  F'iedrich  Wilhelm  von:  his 
campaign  against  the  French,  383, 
390 

Bundschuh,  The:  sketch  of,  229 

Burgundiones  (Burgimdians)  :  location 
of,  6;  migration  of,  28;  defeated  by 
Clovis,  47 

Burgundy:  incorporated  in  the  Prank- 
ish Kingdom,  48;  formation  of  the 
kingdom  of,  98;  attached  to  the  em- 
pire, 126;  independent  of  Germany, 
139;  account  of,  216 

Burkhard,  Duke  of  Suabia:  acknowl- 
edges Henry  I,  105;  his  campaign 
in  Italy,  114 

Burkhard,  Duke  of  Thuringia:  death  of, 
100 

Buturlin,  General:  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  342 


Ci 

Caecina:  his  campaign  in  Germany,  20 

Caesar,  Julius:  in  Gaul,  10 

Cajetanus  (Cajetan),  Tommaso  di  Vio: 

his  relations  with  Luther,  236 
Calixtines,  The:  sketch  of,  207 
Calixtus  II,  Pope:  pontificate  of,  141 
Calvinists:  in  Germany,  259,  265,  293 
Cambray,  League  of  (1508),  227 
Cambray,  The  Peace  of  (1529),  246 
Campo-Formio,  Peace  of  (1797),  361 
Canossa,  Castle  of:  reconciliation  of  the 

Pope  and  emperor  at,  135 


>  For  reference*  not  under  C,look  OBdcr  K. 


INDEX 


467 


Canute,  King  of  Denmark  and  England : 
his  relations  with  Conrad  II  of  Ger- 
many, 125 

Carlowitz,  Treaty  of  (1699),  304 

Carlsbad:  meeting  at  (1819),  394 

Carlstadt,  Andreas  Rudolph:  his  discus- 
sion with  Eck,  237;  joins  Anabap- 
tists, 242 

Camot,  Lazare  Nicolas  Marguerite: 
minister  of  war,  359 

Carthage:  made  capital  of  Vandal  king- 
dom, 39 

Cassel:  taken  by  the  Prussians  (1866), 
410 

Catherine  II,  Empress  of  Russia:  her 
relations  with  Frederick  the  Great, 
343.  345;  her  alliance  with  Joseph 
II  of  Germany,  351 ;  her  relations 
with  the  First  Coalition,  356,  358, 
359 

Catholic  League,  The:  formed,  265 

Celts :  location  of,  7 

Cerealis,  Petitius :  his  campaign  in  Gaul, 
24 

Chalons  (Chalons-sur-Marne)  :  battle  of 
(451  A.D.),  41 

Chanzy,  Antoine  Eugene  Alfred:  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  425 

Charibert  I,  Prankish  king:  reign  of, 
61 

Charibert  II,  Prankish  king:   reign  of, 

65 

Charlemagne  (Charles  (I)  the  Great), 
Holy  Roman  Emperor:  crowned  at 
St.  Denis,  yT,  reign  of,  78 

Charles  (II)  the  Bald,  Holy  Roman  em- 
peror (I,  King  of  France)  :  birth  of, 
90;  favored  by  his  father,  91;  be- 
comes King  of  France,  92;  reign  of, 
95;  crowned  Holy  Roman  emperor, 
96 

Charles  IV,  Holy  Roman  emperor  (I, 
King  of  Bohemia)  :  proclaimed  em- 
peror, 190;  reign  of,  192 

Charles  V,  Holy  Roman  emperor  (I, 
King  of  Spain)  :  becomes  King  of 
Spain,  Sicily  and  Naples,  231 ; 
elected  emperor,  239;  abdicates,  259 

Charles  VI,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
campaigns  of,  313;  reign  of,  315 

Charles  VII  (Charles  Albert),  Holy 
Roman  emperor:  claims  the  Aus- 
trian succession,  328;  crowned,  330 


Charles  I,  King  of  Bohemia :  see  Charles 
IV,  Holy  Roman  emperor 

Charles  I,  King  of  France :  see  Charles 
(II)  the  Bald,  Holy  Roman  em- 
peror 

Charles  (III)  the  Simple,  King  of 
France:  minority  of,  97;  reign  of, 
104;  his  relations  with  Henry  I,  of 
Germany,  105 

Charles  (IV)  the  Fair,  King  of  Prance: 
conspires  against  Lewis  of  Bavaria, 
188 

Charles  (VI)  the  Well  Beloved,  King 
of  France:  attempts  to  settle  the 
dispute  between  the  Popes,  198 

Charles  (VII)  the  Victorious,  King  of 
France:  aids  Frederick  III  of  Ger- 
many, 213 

Charles  VIII,  King  of  Prance :  marries 
Anna  of  Brittany,  219;  his  cam- 
paigns in  Italy,  225 

Charles  IX,  King  of  France:  marries 
daughter  of  Maximilian  II  of  Ger- 
many, 262 

Charles  X,  King  of  France:  installed  in 
France,  388 

Charles  (I)  of  Anjou,  King  of  Naples 
and  Sicily:  accession  of,  169 

Charles  II,  King  of  Spain:  death  of,  311 

Charles  XII,  King  of  Sweden :  wars  of, 

317 

Charles  (XIV)  John  (Jean  Baptiste 
Jules  Bernadotte),  King  of  Swe- 
den: campaigns  of,  367,  382 

Charles,  Archduke  of  Austria:  his  cam- 
paigns against  the  French,  360,  364, 
367,  376 

Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Burgundy: 
career  of,  216 

Charles,  Duke  of  Zweibriicken :  disputes 
possession  of  Bavaria,  348 

Charles  Albert,  King  of  Sardinia :  his 
campaigns  against  the  Austrians, 
402 

Charles  Augustus,  Grand  Duke  of  Saxe- 
Weimar-Eisenach :  court  of,  353 

Charles  Martel :  see  Karl  Martel 

Charles  Theodore,  Elector  of  the  Palati- 
nate: his  struggle  for  Bavaria,  348 

Charles:  see  also  Karl 

Chatti:  location  of,  6;  defeated  by 
Drusus,  is;  invade  Gaul,  23;  rela- 
tion of,  to  Pranks,  28 


468 


INDEX 


Chauci:    location   of,   6;    invade    Rhine 

country,      23;      incorporated     with 

Saxons,  28 
Cherusci :  location  of,  6 ;  extinction  of, 

23;  incorporated  with  Saxons,  28 
Childebert   I,   Prankish  king:   reign  of, 

62 
Childeric  II,  Prankish  king:  reign  of,  69 
Childeric  III,  Prankish  king:  reign  of, 

75 

Chilperic  I,  Prankish  king:  reign  of,  61 

Chilperic  II,  Prankish  king:  reign  of,  71 

Chlodoweg:  see  Govis 

Christian  IV,  King  of  Denmark:  forms 
union  against  Prederick  II  of  Ger- 
many, 273 

Christian  IX,  King  of  Denmark:  in 
the  Schleswig-Holstein  controversy, 
408 

Christian,  Prince  of  Brunswick:  cam- 
paigns of,  271,  273 

Christianity:  accepted  by  Goths,  32;  by 
Qovis,  47;  by  Longobards,  53;  by 
Saxons,  80;  by  Bohemians,  99;  by 
Poles,  120 

Cimbrians:  invade  Roman  territory,  4 

Clam-Gallas,  Eduard,  Count:  campaigns 
of,  410 

Qaudius  II,  Emperor  of  Rome:  defeats 
the  Barbarians,  29 

Claudius  Civilis,  Chief  of  the  Batavi: 
joins  Gauls  in  revolt  against  Rome, 

23 
Clement  II,  Pope:  appointed  by  Henry 

III  of  Germany,  129 

Clement  III.  Pope:  appointed  by  Henry 

IV  of  Germany,  136 

Clement  VI,  Pope:  opposes  Lewis  of 
Bavaria,  190 

Oement  VII,  Pope:  accession  of,  245; 
his  relations  with  Charles  V  of  Ger- 
many, 246 

Clement  XIV,  Pope:  suppresses  the 
Jesuits,  351 

Qericals :  description  of,  439 

Cleves,  Succession  of:  dispute  of  the, 
266 

Qotar  I,   Prankish  king:   reign   of,  61 

Ootar  II,  Prankish  king:  reign  of,  64 

Qotar  III,  Prankish  king:  reign  of,  71 

Qovis  (Chlodoweg),  King  of  the 
Pranks:  career  of,  46,  59 

Quny,  Congregation  of,  128 


Coalitions  against  Prance:  Pirst  (1792- 
1797).  356;  second  (1799-1801), 
362;  third  (1805),  366 

Coblentz :  founded,  15 

Coblenzl :  negotiates  the  Peace  of  Lune- 
ville,  364 

Colberg:  taken  by  the  Russians  (1761), 
342;  siege  of  (1807),  372 

Cologne:  founded,  15;  siege  of  (714 
A.D.),  71 

Cologne,  Diet  of  (1512),  228 

Commodus,  Emperor  of  Rome:  buys 
peace  with  the  Germans,  26 

Comorn :  siege  of  (1848),  402 

Conde,  Louis  II  of  Bourbon,  Prince  of, 
called  the  Great  Conde:  campaigns 
of,  292,  300 

Confederation,  Act  of  (1815),  392 

Confederation  of  the  Rhine:  formed, 
367,  371 ;  dissolution  of,  386 

Confession  of  Paith :  see  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, The 

Congregation  of  Cluny,  128 

Conrad  I,  King  of  Germany:  reign  of, 
104 

Conrad  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
elected  King  of  Germany,  124; 
crowned  emperor,  125 ;  crowned 
King  of  Burgundy,  126;  in  Italy, 
127;  death  of,  127 

Conrad  III,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  heir 
of  Henry  V  of  Germany,  142;  reign 
of,  144 

Conrad  IV,  King  of  Germany:  acces- 
sion of,  164;  opposed  by  Henry 
Raspe,  166;  his  war  with  William 
of  Holland.  168 

Conrad  V,  King  of  Germany:  see  Con- 
radin.  King  of  Germany 

Conrad,  King  of  Burgundy:  visits  Otto 
II  in  Rome,  117 

Conrad,  Duke  of  Lorraine:  invested 
with  Lorraine,  III;  rebellion  of,  112 

Conrad,  nephew  of  Lewis  the  Pious: 
establishes  kingdom  of  Upper  Bur- 
gundy, 98 

Conrad,  son  of  Henry  IV:  rebellion  of, 

137 

Conrad  of  Marburg:  sketch  of,  163 

Conradin  (Conrad  V),  King  of  Ger- 
many :  career  of,  168 

Conservatives:  description  of,  434 

Constance:  founded,  30 


INDEX 


469 


Constance,  Council  of  (1414),  203 
Constance,  Treaty  of  (1183),  153 
Constance  of  Sicily:  marries  Henry  VI 

of  Germany,  155 
Constantine,     Emperor    of    Rome :     his 
campaign  in  Gaul  and  Germany,  30; 
interposes  in  war  between  Vandals 
and  Visigoths,  32 
Constantinople:  conquered     (1453),    220 
Conti,  Prince  of:  defeat  of,  307 
Continental  Blockade,  The,  378 
Copernicus :  sketch  of,  296 
Cortenuovo:  battle  of  (1237),  164 
Corvinus,   Matthias,  King  of  Hungary: 

elected,  215,  219 
Courcelles:  battle  of  (1870^,  421 
Crema:  siege  of  (1160),  igp 
Crescentius:  struggles  of,  119 
Crespy,  Treaty  of  (1544),  251 
Crusades,  The:  the  first,   138;   the  sec- 
ond,  14s;   the  third,   155;   the  fifth, 
161 ;  influence  of,  172 
Cumberland,   William    Augustus,    Duke 
of:  in  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Suc- 
cession, 335 
Custine,  Adam  Philippe,  Court  of:  his 
campaigns  against  the  allied  powers, 
356 


D 


Dagobert  I,  King  of  Austrasia:  reign  of, 

64 
Dannewerk:  construction  of,  85 
Dante  Alighieri:  hails  Albert  I  of  Ger- 
many, 186 
Daun,    Count    Leopold    Joseph    Maria 

von:  campaigns  of.  335,  2,Z7^  339 

Davout,  Louis  Nicolas,  Duke  of  Auer- 

stadt  and   Prince   of  Eckmiihl :   his 

campaign   against  the  allied  forces, 

372 

Decius,  Emperor  of  Rome :  death  of,  28 

DelbriJck,     Martin     Friedrich     Rudolf. 

policy  of,  443 
Dembinski,   Henryk:   in  the  Hungarian 

revolt,  401 
Dennewitz;  battle  of  (1813),  384 
Desiderius,    King    of    the    Longobards: 

his  war  with  Charlemagne,  79 
Dcssan:  battle  of  (1626),  275 
Detmold:  battle  of  C783  a.d.).  82 
Dettingen:  battle  of  (1743),  33° 


Deutscher  Bund:  see  German  Confeder- 
ation, The 
Diebitsch      Sabalkanski,      Count      Ivan 
Ivanovitch:    his    treaty   with    York, 
381 
Dietrich,   Count  of  Holland :   revolt  of, 

130 
Dietzmann,    Count    of    Thuringia:    his 
quarrel  with  his  father,  183;  defeats 
Albert  I  of  Germany,  184 
Diez,  Johann :  see  Tetzel,  Johann 
Doffingen:  battle  of  (1388),  197 
Donation  of  Charlemagne,  The,  80 
Donauwoerth :   seized  by  Maximilian  of 
Bavaria,   265 ;    taken    by    Gustavus 
Adolphus,  282;  taken  by  the  imperi- 
alists, 288;  battle  of  (1645),  292 
Dresden :    occupied    by    the     Prussians 
(1745).  331;   (1756),  335;  taken  by 
Daun      (1759),     340;     occupied     by 
Napoleon  (1813),  382;  taken  by  the 
Prussians  (1866),  410 
Dresden,  Peace  of  (1745),  332 
Drusus,   Nero  Claudius:   his  campaigns 
against  the  Germans,  14;  death  of, 

IS 
Dubienka:  battle  of  (1792),  358 
Ducrot,     Auguste     Alexandre:     in    the 

Franco-Prussian  War,  423 
Dumouriez,  Charles  Francois:  his  cam- 
paigns   against    the    allied    powers, 
356 
Diippel:  battle  of  (1864),  408 
Diisseldorf:  siege  of  (1795),  359 


Eberhard,  Duke  of  the  Franks:  conspi- 
racy of,  109;  death  of,  no 

Eberhard  I,  Count  of  Wiirtemberg:  re- 
volt of,  180;  outlawed,  186 

Eberhard  (II)  the  Whiner,  Count  of 
Wiirtemberg:  wars  of,  195,  197 

Eberhard,  brother  of  Conrad  I :  his  mis- 
sion to  Henry  of  Saxony,  105 

Eberhard  of  the  Beard,  Duke  of 
Wiirtemberg:  at  the  Diet  of 
Worms,  226 

Eberhard  Ludwig,  Duke  of  Wiirtem- 
berg: oppressions  of,  323 

Eck,  Johann  von:  his  discussions  with 
Carlstadt  and  Luther,  237 


470 


INDEX 


Eckemforde:  battle  of  (1848),  400 

Eckmuhl:  battle  of  (1809),  37^ 

Edith,  daughter  of  Athelstan:  wife  of 
Otto  I,  108 

Edward  I,  King  of  England:  his  alli- 
ance with  Adolf  of  Nassau,  183 

Edward  III,  King  of  England:  his  alli- 
ance with  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  189 

Einhard  (Eginhard) :  at  Court  of 
Charlemagne,  86 

Ekbert,  Count  of  Brunswick :  companion 
of  Henry  IV  of  Germany,  131 

Elizabeth,  Empress  of  Russia:  forms 
alliance  with  Austria,  332 

Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Henzel  II  of  Bo- 
hemia: marries  John,  son  of  Henry 
of  Luxemburg,  185 

Elizabeth,  wife  of  Albert  I  of  Germany: 
revenge  of,  185 

Elizabeth,  wife  of  Conrad  IV:  guardian 
of  Conradin,  168 

Elizabeth  of  Brunswick-Bevem :  wife  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  328 

Enghien,  Louis  Antoine  Henri  de  Bour- 
bon-Conde,  Duke  of:  death  of,  366 

Enzio,  King  of  Sardinia :  invested  with 
Sardinia,  164;  at  war  with  the  Pope, 
165;  taken  prisoner  by  Bolognese, 
167 

Erasmus,  Desiderius:  contemporary  of 
Luther,  234 

Erchanger,  Count  of  Suabia:  at  the  bat- 
tle of  the  Inn,  104 

Erfurt:  surrender  of  (1806),  372 

Erfurt,  Treaty  of  (1808),  374 

Erfurt,  University  of:  Luther  at,  234 

Eric,  Duke  of  Brunswick:  befriends 
Luther,  241 

Ernest  the  Pious,  Duke  of  Gotha :  policy 
of,  299 

Ernest  II,  Duke  of  Suabia:  rebellion  of, 
125 

Ernest  Augustus,  Elector  of  Hanover: 
made  elector,  308;  made  viceroy  of 
Hanover,  395;  overthrows  the  con- 
stitution, 396 

Eudo,  Duke  of  Aquitaine:  rebellion 
of,  71 

Eudoxia:  summons  Geiseric  to  Rome, 
43 

Eugene  III,  Pope:  calls  the  second  cru- 
sade, 145:  accepts  the  doctrines  of 
Arnold  of  Brescia,  146 


Eugene  TV,  Pope:  calls  the  Council  of 
Basel,  210;  deposed,  213 

Eugene,  Emperor  of  Rome:  proclaimed 
emperor,  34;  captured  by  Theodo- 
sius,  35 

Eugene  of  Savoy,  Prince:  his  campaigns 
against  the  Turks,  304,  319;  his 
campaigns  against  the  French  in 
Italy,  312;  his  campaigns  in  the 
War  of  the  Austrian  Succession, 
323 

Eugenie,  Empress  of  France:  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  417,  420 

Eylau:  battle  of  (1807),  373 


Fadinger,  Stephen:  leads  revolt,  271 

Faidherbe,  Louis  Leon  Cesar:  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  425 

Favre,  Gabriel  Claude  Jules :  quoted, 
424 

Fehrbellin:  battle  of  (1675),  301 

Felix  V  (Amadeus  VIII  of  Savoy), 
Pope :  pontificate  of,  213 

Ferdinand  I,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
marries  Anna  of  Hungary,  231 ; 
governs  in  Germany,  242;  forms 
league  to  suppress  Luther,  245 ;  calls 
second  Diet  of  Speyer,  246;  elected 
to  German  crown,  249;  unites  with 
Maurice  of  Saxony,  258;  crowned 
emperor,  260;  his  relations  with 
Suleiman,  261 ;  death  of,  262 

Ferdinand  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
persecutes  the  Protestants,  265;  be- 
comes King  of  Bohemia,  267;  reign 
of,  269;  death  of,  290 

Ferdinand  III,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
commands  the  imperialists,  288; 
reign  of,  290 

Ferdinand  I,  Emperor  of  Austria:  reign 
of,  396 

Fermor:  in  the  Seven  Years*  War, 
338 

Fichte,  Johann  Gottlieb:  his  efforts  to 
liberate  Germany,  375 

Field  of  Lies,  Tlie,  91 

Fiesole  (Faesul*)  :  battle  of  (405  a-d.), 

38 

Flavus,  brother  of  Hermann :  becomes  a 
Roman  citizen,  18 


INDEX 


471 


Flenrus:  battle  of  (1794),  357 
Fontainebleau,  Treaty  of   (1762),  343 
Fontenoy:  battle  of  (841  a.d.),  92 
Formosus,  Pope :  crowns  Amulf,  100 
Founder  of  Cities,  The:  see  Henry  (I) 
the   Fowler,   Holy   Roman   emperor 
Fouque,   General:   in  the   Seven  Years' 

War,  340 
Francis  I,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  mar- 
ries Maria  Theresa,  324;  accession 

of,  331 

Francis  H,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  see 
Francis  I,  Emperor  of  Austria 

Francis  I,  Emperor  of  Austria :  becomes 
Holy  Roman  emperor,  355;  his 
relations  with  Napoleon,  359;  re- 
nounces title  and  becomes  Emperor 
of  Austria,  368 

Francis  I,  King  of  France :  opposes  elec- 
tion of  Charles  V  of  Germany,  231, 
239;  seizes  Lombardy,  240;  his  wars 
with  Charles  V  of  Germany,  245; 
makes  peace  with  Charles  V  of 
Germany,  251 

Francis,  Prince  of  Brunswick:  death  of, 

339 
Francis,  Duke  of  Lorraine:  see  Francis 

I,  Holy  Roman  emperor 
Francis  Joseph  I,  Emperor  of  Austria: 

accession  of,  402 
Francke,  August  Hermann:  account  of, 

308 
Franco-Prussian  War,  The,  415 
Frangipani :  treachery  of,  170 
Frankfort,  Diet  of  (1848),  399 
Frankfort,  Treaty  of  (1871),  426 
Frankfort-on-the-Main :   founded,  86 
Frankfort-on-the-Oder :     taken     (1631), 

279 
Franks:  origin  and  location  of,  27;  cap- 
ture   Syracuse,   30;   defeat   Romans 

at  Soissons,  46 
Franz  of  Taxis:  sketch  of,  231 
Fredegar    (Fredegarius) :    his    estimate 

of  Clotar  n,  64 
Fredegunde:  sketch  of,  62 
Frederick  (I)  Barbarossa,  Holy  Roman 

emperor:  joins  the  second  crusade, 

145;  reign  of,  147 
Frederick    II,    Holy    Roman    emperor: 

claims  the  throne  of  Germany,  159; 

reign  of,  160;  death  of,  167 
Frederick    (III)    of    Austria,    King   of 


Germany:  rival  of  Lewis  of  Ba- 
varia, 189 

Frederick  III,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
reign  of,  212;  death  of,  220 

Frederick  VII,  King  of  Denmark: 
death  of,  408 

Frederick  III,  Emperor  of  Germany: 
reign  of,  448 

Frederick  I,  King  of  Prussia  (III,  Elec- 
tor of  Brandenburg)  :  accession  of, 
311;  death  of,  319;  estimate  of,  320 

Frederick  (II)  the  Great,  King  of  Prus- 
sia: reign  of,  326 

Frederick  II,  King  of  Sicily:  struggles 
of,  186 

Frederick  the  Quarrelsome,  Duke  of 
Austria :  deposed,  164 

Frederick  with  the  Empty  Pocket,  Duke 
of  Austria:   forfeits  his  duchy,  204 

Frederick  I,  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
(VI,  Burgrave  of  Nuremberg)  :  se- 
cures Brandenburg,  206;  his  cam- 
paign against  the  Hussites,  209 

Frederick  III,  Elector  of  Brandenburg: 
see  Frederick  I,  King  of  Prussia 

Frederick,  Count  of  Hohenzollern  and 
Burgrave  of  Nuremberg:  supports 
Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  179,  181 

Frederick  (VI)  of  Hohenzollern,  Bur- 
grave of  Nuremberg:  see  Frederick 
I,  Elector  of  Brandenburg 

Frederick  V,  Elector  Palatine:  elected 
King  of  Bohemia,  270;  deposed 
from  the  Palatinate,  272 

Frederick  (III)  the  Wise,  Elector  of 
Saxony:  at  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
226;  founds  the  University  of  Wit- 
tenberg, 234;  befriends  Luther,  237, 
240,  241 ;  declines  election  as  em- 
peror, 239 

Frederick  I,  Duke  of  Suabia:  death  of, 

137 

Frederick  (II)  of  Hohenstaufen,  Duke 
of  Suabia:  his  relations  with  Henry 
V  of  Germany,  141;  his  war  with 
Lothar  II  of  Germany,  143 

Frederick,  Count  of  Thuringia:  his 
quarrel  with  his  father,  183;  defeats 
Albert  I  of  Germany,  184 

Frederick  of  Baden:  sketch  of,  169 

Frederick  Augustus  II,  Elector  of  Sax^ 
ony:  see  Augustus  III,  King  of  Po- 
land 


472 


INDEX 


Frederick  Charles,  Prince  of  Prussia: 
his  campaigns  against  the  Danes, 
408;  his  campaigns  against  the  Aus- 
trians,  410;  his  campaigns  against 
the  French,  420,  422,  425 

Frederick  William  I,  King  of  Prussia: 
reign  of,  319 

Frederick  William  II,  King  of  Prussia: 
reign  of,  354 

Frederick  William  III,  King  of  Prus- 
sia :  reign  of,  363,  366 ;  makes  an 
alliance  with  Alex  I  of  Russia,  373 

Frederick  William  IV,  King  of  Prus- 
sia :  reign  of,  396 ;  elected  hereditary 
emperor,  402;  campaigjns  of,  410, 
420 

Frederick  William,  The  Great  Elector 
of  Brandenburg:  policy  of,  299 

Free  Conservatives:  description  of,  435 

Freeth inking  Party:  description  of,  446 
note 

Freiburg:  taken  by  the  French  (1677), 
301;  battle  of  (1762),  343 

Fridigem,  Chief  of  Goths:  defeats  the 
Romans,  34 

Friedland:  battle  of  (1807),  373 

Friesland:  annexed  to  Prankish  king- 
dom, 85 

Frossard,  Charles  Auguste:  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  420 

Frundsberg,  George  von:  befriends 
Luther,  240;  at  siege  of  Rome,  246 

Fust,  Johann:  his  quarrel  with  Guten- 
berg, 221 


Gablenz,  Ludwig  Karl  Wilhelm,  Baron 
von:  campaigns  of,  408 

Gallas,  Matthias  von:  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  286,  288,  291 

Gallus,  Emperor  of  Rome:  pays  tribute 
to  Goths,  29 

Galsunta:  sketch  of,  62 

Gambetta,  L^on :  in  the  Franco- Prussian 
War,  425 

Garibald,  King  of  the  Bavarians:  his 
daughter  marries  Autharis,  54 

Garibaldi,  Giuseppe:  in  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  425 

Gastein :  conference  at,  409 

Gauls:  revolt  against  Rome,  23 

Geiseric  (Genseric),  King  of  the  Van>- 


dals :  leads  his  people  into  Northern 
Africa,  39;  summoned  to  Rome  by 
Eudoxia,  43 

Gelders:  taken  by  the  French,  300 

Gelimer,  King  of  the  Vandals:  defeat 
of,  49 

Genoa:  seige  of  (1800),  363 

Genseric :  see  Geiseric 

George  I,  King  of  England:  accession 
of,  319 

George  II,  King  of  England :  campaigns 
of,  330;  death  of,  341 

George  V,  King  of  Hanover:  defeat  of, 
410 

George,  Duke  of  Brunswick:  defeats  the 
imperialists,  285 

George  I,  Elector  of  Hanover:  see 
George  I,  King  of  England 

George  Frederick,  Margrave  of  Baden: 
defeat  of,  272 

George  William,  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg: his  relations  with  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  280 

Gepidae:  destruction  of,  51 

Gerard,  Archbishop  of  Mayence:  in- 
fluence of,  183 

German  Confederation,  The  (1815), 
392 

German  (Teutonic)  Order  of  Knights, 
173..  195,  199,  215 

Germania :  issued,  439 

Germanicus:  his  campaigns  in  Germany, 
20;  death  of,  21 

Germany,  History  of:  the  ancient  Ger- 
mans and  their  country,  3 ;  the  wars 
with  Rome,  10;  Hermann,  the  first 
German  leader,  17;  the  first  three 
centuries  of  our  era,  23;  the  migra- 
tion of  the  Goths,  31 ;  the  invasion 
of  the  Huns,  38;  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  Ostrogoths,  45;  Europe  at  the 
end  of  the  migrations  of  the  races, 
53;  the  kingdom  of  the  Franks,  59; 
the  dynasty  of  the  mayors  of  the 
palace,  67;  the  reigfn  of  Charle^ 
magne,  78;  the  emperors  of  the 
Carolingian  line,  89;  Conrad  I  and 
the  Saxon  dynasty,  103;  the  decline 
of  the  Saxon  dynasty,  1 16;  the 
Franconian  emperors,  124;  end  of 
the  Franconian  dynasty,  and  rise  of 
the  Hohenstaufens,  139;  the  reign 
of  Frederick   Barbarossa,    147;   the 


INDEX 


473 


reign  of  Frederick  II  and  the  end 

of  the  Hohenstaufen  line,  158;  the 
interregnum,  171 ;  from  Rudolf  of 
Hapsburg  to  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  179; 
the  Luxemburg  emperors,  Charles 
IV  and  Wenzel,  192;  the  reign  of 
Sigismund  and  the  Hussite  war, 
201 ;  the  foundation  of  the  Haps- 
burg dynasty,  212;  the  reign  of 
Maximilian  I,  225;  the  Reformation, 
233;  growth  of  Protestantism,  254; 
beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
265;  end  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
288;  decline  of  imperial  power,  298; 
the  War  of  Spanish  Succession, 
311;  the  reign  of  Frederick  the 
Great,  326;  Maria  Theresa  and  Jo- 
seph II,  347;  the  end  of  the  German 
empire,  354;  Germany  under  Napo- 
leon, 371 ;  the  War  of  Liberation, 
reaction,  387;  the  Revolution  of 
1848  and  its  results,  398;  the  strug- 
gle with  Austria;  the  North  Ger- 
man Confederation,  407;  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  415 ;  the  Ger- 
man empire,  428 

Gero,  Count  of  Saxony:  his  campaigns 
against  the  Wends,  no 

Gertrude,  daughter  of  Lothar  II :  mar- 
ries Henry  the  Proud,  143 

Ghibelline:  sketch  of,  144 

Gibraltar:  taken  by  the  English  (1704), 

313 

Gisela,  daughter  of  Charles  the  Simple: 
sketch  of,  124 

Giselbert,  Duke  of  Lorraine:  revolt  of, 
105 ;  conspiracy  of,  109 ;  death  of, 
no 

Gitchin:  battle  of  (1866),  411 

Gneisenau,  August  Wilhelm  Anton, 
Count  Neidhardt  von:  defends  Col- 
berg,  372 ;  his  efforts  to  liberate  Ger- 
many, 375 

God,  Truce  of:  published,  128 

Godfrey,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  revolt  of, 
130;  concludes  peace  with  the  em- 
pire, 131 ;  death  of,  132 

Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  King  of  Jerusa- 
lem: leads  crusade,  138 

Godfrey  of  Strasburg:  sketch  of,  178 

Goethe,  Johann  Wolfgang  von:  in- 
fluence of,  233,  353 

Golden  Bull,  The:  description  of,  193 


Good  Emperors,  The:  condition  of  Ger- 
many under,  25 

Gorgey,  Arthur:  in  the  Hungarian  re- 
volt, 401 

Gorm,  King  of  Denmark:  at  war  with 
Henry  I,  107 

Gotha:  siege  of  (1567),  262 

Goths:  location  of,  6;  plunder  Roman 
territory,  29;  make  treaty  with 
Aurelian,  29;  end  of  power  of,  50 

Gottfried,  King  of  Denmark:  invades 
Holstein,  85 

Gottfried,  Chief  of  the  Norsemen:  mar- 
ries a  Carolingian  princess,  97 

Gramont,  Antoine  Agenor  Alfred,  Duke 
de:  in  the  Franco-Prussian  War, 
416 

Granson:  battle  of  (1476),  217 

Gravelotte:  battle  of  (1870),  422 

Gregory  II,  Saint,  Pope:  his  relations 
with  Karl  Martel,  74 

Gregory  IV,  Pope :  mediates  in  the  quar- 
rel between  Lewis  the  Pious  and  his 
sons,  91 

Gregory  V  (Bruno  of  Carenthia),  Pope: 
account  of,  119 

Gregory  VII,  Saint  (Hildebrand  of 
Savona),  Pope:  power  of,  130; 
pontificate  of,  133 

Gregory  IX,  Pope:  his  relations  with 
Frederick  II  of  Germany,  161,  164; 
urges  the  crushing  of  heresy  in  Ger- 
many, 162 

Gregory  X,  Pope:  demands  the  election 
of  a  German  king,  179;  his  relations 
with  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  180 

Gregory  XII,  Pope:  deposed,  201;  ab- 
dication of,  204 

Gregory  XV,  Pope:  receives  library  of 
Heidelberg,  272 

Grifo,  son  of  Karl   Martel:   career  of, 

75 

Grimoald,  mayor  of  the  palace:  career 
of,  68 

Grossbeeren:  battle  of  (1813),  383 

Grouchy,  Marquis  Emmanuel  de:  at  the 
battle  of  Waterloo,  390 

Grumbach,  William  von:  sketch  of,  262 

Guelph:  sketch  of,  144 

Gundobald:  claims  Prankish  throne,  63 

Gunhilde,  daughter  of  Canute:  be- 
trothed to  Henry  III  of  Germany, 
125 


474 


INDEX 


Gunther,  King  of  the  Burgundians :  de- 
feated by  Attila,  41 

Gunther,  Count  of  Schwarzburg:  rival 
of  Charles  IV,  192 

Guntram,  Prankish  king:  reign  of,  61 

Gustavus  (11)  Adolphus.  King  of  Swe- 
den: in  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  278; 
death  of,  284 

Gutenberg,  John:  sketch  of,  220 

H 

Hakon  VI,  King  of  Norway:  defeated 
by  Hanseatic  League,  195 

Halle:  taken  by  Tilly  (1631),  280;  taken 
by  Schill   (1809),  376 

Halle,  University  of:  founded,  320 

Hamburg:  a  member  of  the  Hanseatic 
League,  174;  surrenders  to  Wallen- 
stein  (1628),  276;  recovered  from 
French   (1813),  382 

Hamelin:  siege  of   (1625),  274 

Hanau:  battle  of  (1813),  385 

Hanno,  Archbishop  of  Cologne:  con- 
spiracy of,  131 

Hanover:  surrendered  to  the  French, 
336,  339;  given  to  Prussia,  371; 
taken  by  the  Prussians   (1866),  410 

Hanseatic  League  (The  Hansa)  :  found- 
ed, 174;  growth  of,  19s;  decline  of, 

231 

Hardenberg,  Prince  Karl  August  von: 
concludes  the  Treaty  of  Basel,  357; 
his  efforts  to  liberate  Germany,  379, 
381 

Harold  Bluetooth,  King  of  Denmark, 
repelled  by   Otto  I,   in 

Haroun  Al  Raschid:  his  relations  with 
Charlemagne,  85 

Hatto,  Archbishop  of  Mayence:  ap- 
pointed regent  of  Germany,  100; 
conspiracy  of,  110 

Haynau,  Julius  Jakob,  Baron  von:  in 
Hungary,  402 

Hecker  of  Baden:  leads  political  fac- 
tion, 399 

Heidelberg:  destroyed  by  Tilly,  272 

Heilbronn:  meeting  at,  285 

Helvetii :  location  of,  7 

Hengist:  lands  in  England,  39 

Henry  (I)  the  Fowler,  King  of  Ger- 
many: at  war  with  Conrad  I,  104; 
accession  of,  105 


Henry  (H),  Saint,  Holy  Roman  em- 
peror: accession  of,  121 

Henry  HI,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  be- 
trothed to  Gunhilde,  125;  reign  of, 
128 

Henry  IV,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  ac- 
cession of,  131 ;  minority  of,  131 ; 
reign  of,  132;  his  struggle  with  the 
Pope,  134 

Henry  V,  Holy  Roman  Emperor:  re- 
bellion of,  137;  reign  of,  139;  heirs 
of,  142 

Henry  VI,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
crowned  King  of  Germany,  154; 
marries  Constance  of  Sicily,  155; 
reign  of,  156 

Henry  (VII)  of  Luxemburg,  Holy  Ro- 
man emperor:  reign  of,  185 

Henry  of  Carinthia,  King  of  Bohemia: 
deposed,  185 

Henry  VII,  King  of  England:  forms 
alliance  with  Maximilian  I  of  Ger- 
many, 220 

Henry  I,  King  of  France:  his  inter- 
view with  Henry  III  of  Germany, 

131 

Henry  II,  King  of  France:  his  alliance 
with  Maurice  of  Saxony,  257 

Henry  (IV)  of  Navarre,  King  of 
France:  his  alliance  with  the  Prot- 
estant Union,  266 

Henry,  King  of  the  Romans:  corona- 
tion of,  160;  his  rule  in  Germany, 
162;  revolt  of,  163 

Henry  I,  Duke  of  Bavaria:  conspiracies 
of,  109,  no;  invested  with  Bavaria, 
hi;  death  of,  113 

Henry  II,  Duke  of  Bavaria:  revolt  of, 
116;  aims  to  usurp  throne,  118 

Henry  III,  Duke  of  Bavaria:  see  Henry 
(II)    Saint,   Holy  Roman  emperor 

Henry  (X)  the  Proud,  Duke  of  Bava- 
ria and  Saxony:  career  of,  143 

Henry  the  Lion,  Duke  of  Saxony:  ca- 
reer of,  144,  152,  157 

Henry,  Count  of  Schwerin:  his  war 
with  Denmark,   162 

Henry,  Prince  of  Prussia:  in  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  336,  339,  342 

Henry,  son  of  Lewis  of  Bavaria:  mar- 
ries Margaret  of  Tyrol,   190 

Henry  Raspe,  Landgrave  of  Thuringia: 
usurps  throne  of  Germany,  166 


INDEX 


475 


Herder,    Johann    Gottfried    von:    influ- 
ence of,  333,  353 
Heribert,   Archbishop  of  Milan:   career 

of,  127 
Hermanfried,    King   of   Thuringia:    his 

struggles   with  Theuderic,  60 
Hermann    (Arminius)  :   career  of,   17 
Hermann  of  Salza:  career  of,  173 
Hermann  Billung,  Duke  of  Saxony:  his 
campaign   against  the   Wends,    108; 
death  of,  115 
|Hermanric,    King    of    the    Ostrogoths: 

death  of,  33 
Hermunduri :    location    of,    6 ;    incorpo- 
rated with  Thuringians,  28 
Hermingarde,  wife  of  Charlemagne:  re- 
pudiation- of,  79 
Hertzberg,  Count  Ewald  Friedrich  von: 

policy  of,  355 
Heruli:  their  relations  with  the  Longo- 

bards,  51 
Herward  von  Bittenfeld:  campaigns  of, 

410 
Hieronymus:  see  Jerome  (Hieronymus), 

Saint 
Hildebrand    of    Savona:     see    Gregory 

VH,   Saint,   Pope 
Hochkirch:  battle  of   (1758),  339 
Hodel:    his   attempt   to   assassinate   the 

emperor,  445 
Hofer,  Andreas:  leads  the  Tyrolese  re- 
volt, 375,  zyy 
Hohenf riedberg :  battle  of   (1745),  331 
Hohenlinden  :   battle  of    ( 1800) ,  364 
Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen,    Prince    Freder- 
ick Louis  of:  defeated  at  Jena,  372 
Holy  Alliance,  The   (1815),  393 
Holy  League,  The  (1511),  228 
Holy    Roman    Empire    of   the    German 
Nation:    founded,    1 13;    dissolution 
of,  368 
Holy  Vehm,  The,  230 
Honorius  \\\,  Pope:  his  relations  with 

Frederick  H  of  Germany,  160 
Honorius,  Emperor  of  the  West:  reign 

of,  35 
Horn,  Count  Gustaf :  campaigns  of,  280, 

285 
Horsa:  lands  in  England,  39 
Hubertsburg,  Peace  of   (1763),  344 
Hugh    Capet,    King    of    France:    visits 
Otto    H    in    Rome,    117;    gains   the 
throne  of  France,  119 


Hugo,  Duke:  claims  French  throne,  iii 

Humboldt,  Alexander  von:  influence  of, 
396 

Humboldt,  William  von:  influence  of, 
396 

Hungarians:  sketch  of,  99;  incursions 
of,  100;  make  a  truce  with  Henry 
I,  106;  defeat  of,  107;  invade  Ger- 
many, 112 

Hunyadi,  John:  career  of,  214 

Huns:  sketch  of,  ZZ',  invasion  of,  38 

Huss,  John:  sketch  of,  202 

Hussite  War,  The,  201 

Hutten,  Ulric  von:  befriends  Luther, 
239 


I,  J 

Iconium:  taken  by  crusaders,  155 
Indulgences :  description  of,  235 
Ingiomar,    uncle    of    Hermann:     joins 

Marbod,  21 
Ingoldstadt:  resists  Gustavus  Adolphus, 

282 
Inn:  battle  of  the  (913  a.d.),  104 
Innocent  II,  Pope:  pontificate  of,  143 
Innocent  III,  Pope:  policy  of,  158;  death 

of,  160 
Innocent  IV,  Pope:  pontificate  of,  166 
Innocent    VI,    Pope:    sends    Rienzi    to 

Rome,  193 
Innocent  X,  Pope:  condemns  the  Treaty 

of  Westphalia,  294 
Innsbruck:   captured  by  Hofer    (1809), 

375 
Inquisition:     established     in     Germany, 

158;  end  of,  in  Germany,  163 
Interdict,  The:  description  of,  188 
Investiture,  The  Right  of:  struggle  for, 

134.  139;  settlement  of,  141 
lolanthe,  daughter  of  Guy  of  Lusignan: 

wife  of  Frederick   II   of  Germany, 

161 
Irmingarde,  wife  of  Lewis  the   Pious: 

death  of,  90 
Irminpillar,  The:  destruction  of,  80 
Isabella,  sister  of  Henry  III  of  England: 

marries   Frederick   II   of   Germany, 

163 
Isidorian    Decretals:    discovery   of,    99 
Ivan,   Emperor  of  Russia:   attacks  the 

Baltic  provinces,  261 


476 


INDEX 


Jagcllo,  King  of  Poland:  supports  We- 
bold  of  Lithuania,  20S 

Jellachich  (Jellaschich)  de  Buzin,  Jo- 
seph, Count,  Ban  of  Croatia:  de- 
feats Kossuth,  401 

Jemappes:  battle  of  (1792),  356 

Jena:  battle  of  (1806),  372 

Jerome  (Hieronymus),  Saint:  sketch  of, 
202 

Jerusalem:  capture  of  (1099),  138; 
taken  by  Saladin  (1187),  155 

Jesuits:  growth  of,  in  Germany,  259; 
banished  from  Bohemia,  268;  return 
to  Bohemia,  270;  influence  of,  273; 
responsible  for  policy  of  Frederick 
II  of  Germany,  290;  attempt  to 
crush  Protestantism  in  Hungary, 
303;  banished  from  France,  Spain, 
Naples  and  Portugal,  351;  expelled 
from  Germany,  441 

Jews:  in  Germany,  350 

Jodocus,  King  of  Germany:  conspiracy 
of,  198;  elected  King  of  Germany, 
201 

John  XII,  Pope:  his  relations  with  Otto 
I,  113;  deposed,  114 

John  XV,  Pope:  his  relations  with  Otto 
III,  119 

John  XVI,  Pope:  accession  of,  121 

John  XIX,  Pope:  crowns  Conrad  II,  125 

John  XXII,  Pope:  opposes  Lewis  of  Ba- 
varia, 187 

John  XXIII,  anti-Pope:  pontificate  of, 
201 ;  imprisoned,  204 

John,  King  of  Bohemia:  becomes  King, 
185;  opposes  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  189; 
death  of,  190 

John,  King  of  England:  at  war  with 
Philip  II  of  France,  160 

John  (II)  Casimir,  King  of  Poland: 
aided  by  Frederick  William  of 
Brandenburg,  300 

John  (III)  Sobieski,  King  of  Poland: 
relieves  Vienna,  303 

John,  Archduke  of  Austria:  his  cam- 
paign against  the  French,  363;  his 
efforts  to  liberate  Germany,  382, 
394;  elected  vicar-general  of  the  em- 
pire, 400 

John,  son  of  (Tharles  IV:  receives  Lu- 
satia,  194 

John  Cicero,  Margrave  of  Brandenburg: 
at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  226 


John  Frederick,  Elector  of  Saxony: 
sketch  of,  25s,  258;  death  of,  262 

John  George  I,  Elector  of  Saxony:  his 
alliance  with  the  emperor,  270,  272; 
his  lands  ravaged  by  the  imperial 
forces,  276;  unites  with  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  280,  282;  makes  a  treaty 
with  the  emperor,  288 

John  George  II,  Elector  of  Saxony;  pol- 
icy of,  299 

John  of  Leyden:  sketch  of,  250 

John  of  Nepomuck,  Saint:  death  of,  198 

John  Parricida,  Duke  of  Austria :  sketch 
of,  185 

John  Sigismund,  Elector  of  Branden- 
burg: in  the  Succession  of  Cleves 
dispute,  266 

John  William,  Duke  of  Qeves:  death 
of,  266 

Jonas,  Justus:  befriends  Luther,  237; 
at  the  conference  at  Marburg,  247; 
at  Luther's  deathbed,  252 

Joseph  I,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  reign 
of,  313 

Joseph  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  reign 
of,  347 

Jourdan,  Count  Jean  Baptiste:  his  cam- 
paigns against  the  allied  powers, 
357.  360,  362 

Judith,  daughter  of  Welf :  marries  Lewis 
the  Pious,  90 

Julius  II,  Pope:  his  relations  with  the 
League  of  Cambray,  227 

Justinian  I,  Emperor  of  the  East;  reign 
of,  48 

K» 

Kanzelparagraph,  441 

Kara  Mustapha,  Grand  Vizier:  besieges 
Vienna,  303 

Karl  (III)  the  Fat,  Holy  Roman  em- 
peror (II,  King  of  France) :  reign 
of,  96 

Kari  II,  King  of  France:  see  Karl  (III) 
the  Fat,  Holy  Roman  emperor 

Karl,  Duke  of  Bnmswick:  deposed,  395 

Karl:  see  also  Charles 

Karl  Martel,  mayor  of  the  palace :  reign 
of,  70 

Karlmann,  Prankish  king:  reign  of,  96 

Karloman,  mayor  of  the  palace:  career 
of,  75 


>  For  reference*  not  under  K,look  under  & 


INDEX 


477 


Karloman,  son  of  Pippin  I  and  King  of 

the  Franks:  crowned  at  St.   Denis, 

"JT,  reign  of,  78 
Katte,  Hans  Hermann  von:   career  of, 

327 
Katzbach:  battle  of  the  (1813),  383 
Kaunitz,    Prince    Wenzel    Anton    von, 

Count  of  Rietberg:  negotiations  of, 

334 
Kehl:  taken  by  the  French,  323 
Keith,   James   Francis   Edward:   in   the 

Seven  Years'  War,  338 
Kellerman,     Frangois     Christophe:     his 

campaigns  against  the  allied  powers, 

356 
Kepler,  Johann:  encouraged  by  Rudolf 

kn  of  Germany,  263 
'  Keratry,  Count  Emile  de :  in  the  Fran- 
'^^  co-Prussian  War,  425 

Kesselsdorf :  battle  of  (1745),  331 
Klopstock,  Friedrich  Gottlieb:  influence 

of,  332,  353.  381 
Kollin:  battle  of  (1757),  335 
Koniggratz:  battle  of  (1866),  411 
Konigsmark,    Hans    Christoph :    in    the 

Thirty  Years'  War,  293 
Koribut,  nephew  of  Witold  of  Lithua- 
nia :  career  of,  209 
Korner,   Karl   Theodor:   his   efforts   to 

liberate  Germany,  381 
Kosciusko       (Kosciuszko),     Thaddeus: 

sketch  of,  358 
Kossuth,  Louis:  sketch  of,  401 
Kotzebue,  Augfust  von:  assassination  of, 

394 
Kulm:  battle  of  (1813),  384 
Kulturkatnpf,  The,  440 
Kunersdorf :  battle  of  (1759),  339 
Kunimund,  King  of  the  Gepidae:  death 

of,  51 


Ladislas  the  Posthumous,  King  of  Hun- 
gary and  Bohemia :  reign  of,  215 
Landfrieden:     see     Perpetual     National 

Peace 
Landshut:  battle  of  (1760),  340 
Landsknechte :  rise  of,  229 
Langensalza:  battle  of  (1866),  410 
Lasalle,  Ferdinand :  influence  of,  438 
Latour,    Count    Theodore    Baillet    de: 
death  of,  401 


Laudon,  Baron  Gideon  Ernest  von :   in 

the   Seven  Years'  War,  338,  340 
Lauriston,    Alexandre    Jacques    Bernard 
Law,   Marquis   of:    in   the   Franco- 
Prussian  War,  423 
Lech:    battles    of   the    (955   A.D.).  112; 

(1632),  282 
Legnano:  battle  of  (1176),  152 
Lehwald :  campaign  of,  336 
Leibnitz,  Baron  Gottfried  Wilhelm  von: 

sketch  of,  308,  320 
Leipzig   (Leipzic  or  Leipsic)  :  battle  of 
(1631),   280;   taken  by  Wallenstein 
(1632),  283;  occupied  by  the  Prus- 
sians (174s),  331;  battle  of  (1813), 
384;  taken  by  the  Prussians  (1866), 
410 
Leipzig,  University  of:  founded,  202 
Le  Mans:  battle  of  (1871),  425 
Leo  I,  Saint,  surnamed  the  Great,  Bish- 
op   of    Rome:   persuades   Attila   to 
leave  Italy,  42 
Leo  HI,  Pope:  his  relations  with  Char- 
lemagne, 84 
Leo  IX,  Pope :  assists  Henry  III  of  Ger- 
many,   130;    his   relations   with   the 
Normans,  130 
Leo  X,  Pope :  opposes  election  of  Charles 
V  of  Germany,  231 ;  his  sale  of  in- 
dulgences,   235;    his    relations    with 
Luther,  237,  238;  death  of,  245 
Leo  XIII,  Pope:  pontificate  of,  442 
Leoben,  Treaty  of  (i797).  361 
Leopold  I,  Holy  Roman  emperor;  reign 

of,  299 
Leopold  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor;  reign 

of,  354 
Leopold,  Prince  of  Anhalt-Dessau :  cam- 
paigns of,  314;  organizes  the  Prus- 
sian army,  321 
Leopold,   Prince  of  Hohenzollem,  416; 

sketch  of,  416 
Leopold    I,    Duke    of    Austria:    takes 
Richard    the    Lion-Heart    prisoner, 
156 
Leopold  II,  Duke  of  Austria:  at  battle 
of   Morgarten,    187;    conspiracy   of, 
188;  his  war  with  the  Swiss,  196 
Leopold  of  Austria:   acquires   Bavaria, 

144 
Leopold  of  Hapsburg,  Archduke:  in  the 

Succession  of  Clevcs  dispute,  266 
Leopold,  son  of  Ferdinand  II:  receives 


478 


INDEX 


Bremen   and   Magdeburg,   277;   de- 
feats  Baner,   291 
Lessing,    Gotthold    Ephraim:    influence 

of,  332.  353 
Leuthen:  battle  of  (i757).  337 
Lewis  (I)  the  Pious,  Holy  Roman  em- 
peror: crowned  King  of  Aquitaine, 
81 ;     recognized    as    emperor,    88 ; 
reign  of,  89 
Lewis   (IV)    of  Bavaria,   Holy  Roman 

emperor:  reign  of,  187 
Lewis    (H)    the    Stammerer,    King    of 

France :  reign  of,  96 
Lewis  (H)  the  Severe,  Duke  of  Bava- 
ria:   guardian    of    Conradin,     169; 
supports  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg,  180 
Lewis,   son   of   Lewis   of   Bavaria:    re- 
ceives    Brandenburg,     190;     treats 
with  Charles  IV  of  Germany,   192 
Lewis :  see  also  Louis  and  Ludwig 
Leyden,  John  of:  see  John  of  Leyden 
Liberal     Union:     description     of,     446 

note 
Lichnowsky,    Prince    Felix    Maria    An- 
dreas von :  murder  of,  400 
Liebknecht,  Wilhelm:   leads  the   Social 

Democrats,  438 
Liegnitz:  battle  of  (1760),  340 
Ligny:  battle  of  (1815),  389 
Lille:  siege  of  (1708),  314 
Limes :  built  by  Romans,  25 
Linz:  taken  by  the  French  (1741),  329 
Lobositz:  battle  of  (1756),  335 
Lombards:   see  Longobardi 
London,  Congress  of  (1852),  403 
Longobardi    (Lombards)  :     location   of, 
6;   summoned  to  Italy,  51;   invade 
Switzerland,  61 
Longwy:  siege  of  (1792),  356 
Lorraine,  Charles  IV,  Duke  of:  defeated 
by  Gustavus  Adolphus,  281 ;  relieves 
Vienna,  303 
Lorraine,    Charles    of:    campaigns    of 

(1744).  330;  (1757),  337 
Lothar  I,  Holy  Roman  emperor :  associ- 
ated with  Lewis  the  Pious  as  em- 
peror, 90;  revolt  of,  91;  defeated  by 
his  brothers,  92;  agrees  to  terms  of 
the  Partition  of  Verdun,  93;  reign 
of,  95 
Lothar  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  elect- 
ed King  of  Germany,  141 ;  crowned 
emperor,  143 


Lothar,  King  of  France:  takes  posses- 
sion of  Lorraine,  116 
Louis  Phillippe,  King  of  France:  acces- 
sion of,  395 ;  flight  of,  398 
Louis:  see  also  Lewis  and  Ludwig 
Louise,  Queen  of  Prussia:  at  Tilsit,  373 
Louvain:  battle  of  (893  a.d.),  98 
Lower  Lorraine,  Charles,  Duke  of:  de- 
feated by  Hugh  Capet,  119 
Lubeck:  founded,  146 
Louis      (IV)      d'Outre-mer,     King     of 
France:     joins     conspiracy     against 
Otto  I,   no;  calls  for  help  against 
Duke  Hugo,  in 
Louis     (VII)     the     Young,     King    of 
France:  in  the  second  crusade,  145 
Louis  IX,  Saint,  King  of  France:  medi- 
ation of,  166 
Louis    XI,    King    of    France :    opposes 

Charles  the  Bold,  217,  218 
Louis  XII,  King  of  France:  campaigns 

of,  227 
Louis    XIII,    King   of    France:    in    the 

Thirty  Years'  War,  285,  289 
Louis     (XIV)     the     Great,     King     of 
France :  his  position  on  the  Conti- 
nent, 298;  reipi  of,  298 
Louis  XV,  King  of  France:  aids  Stan- 
islas     Lesczinsky,      323;      supports 
Charles  Albert's  claims,  329;  makes 
an  alliance  with  Maria  Theresa,  334 
Louis  XVI,  King  of  France:  execution 

of,  356 

Lubeck:    a    member   of    the    Hanseatic 

League,  174;  surrenders  to  Wallen- 

stein,     276;     recovered     from     the 

French,  382 

Ludolf,  Duke  of   Suabia:   accession  o^ 

in;  rebellion  of,  112;  death  of,  113 

Ludwig  II,  Holy  Romas  emperor:  death 

of,  96 
Ludwig    the    German,    Prankish    king: 
crowned  King  of  Bavaria,  90 ;  revolt 
of,  91 ;  becomes  King  of  Germany, 
92;  reign  of,  95 
Ludwig    (III)    the   Younger,    Prankish 

king:  reign  of,  96 
Ludwig  (III)  the  Child,  King  of  Ger- 
many: reign  of,  100 
Ludwig  I,   King  of   Bavaria:   reign  of, 

396 
Ludwig  II,  King  of  Bavaria :  mission  of, 

427 


INDEX 


479 


Ludwig,    Margrave    of    Baden:    cam- 
paigns of,  304,  313 
Ludwig:  see  also  Lewis  and  Louis 
Luitpold,   Duke   of  Bavaria:    death   of, 

100 
Luitprand,  King  of  the  Longobards :  at 

war  with  the  Pope,  74 
Luitward,  Bishop :  conspiracy  of,  98 
Luneville,   Peace  of   (1801),  364 
Lusatia :  conquest  of,  107 
Luther,  Martin :  career  of,  233 
Lutheran  Church,  The:  organization  of, 

245 
Lutter:  battle  of  (1626),  275 
Liitzen:  battles  of  (1632),  284;   (1813), 

282 


M 


I;-  Macdonald,     fitienne     Jacques     Joseph 
Alexandre,  Duke  of  Tarentum :   in 
the  Napoleonic  wars,  383,  385 
Mac  Mahon,  Marie  Edme  Patrick  Mau- 
rice   de:    in    the    Franco-Prussian 
War,  421 
Mack  von  Leiberich,  Baron  Karl:   sur- 
renders Ulm,  367 
Magdeburg:  sieges  of  (i5SO-i55i)j  256; 
(1631),    279;     surrendered    to    the 
French   (1806),  372 
Magenta:  battle  of  (1859),  405 
Magnus,  Duke  of  Saxony :  his  hostility 

to  Henry  IV  of  Germany,   132 
Magyars :  see  Hungarians 
Majestdtbrief:   issued,  267 
Malplaquet:  battle  of  (1709),  314 
Manfred,   King  of   Sicily:   regent,   168; 

crowned  king,  169 
Mannheim:   destroyed  by  Tilly   (1622), 

272;  siege  of  (i795),  359 
Mansfeld,  Ernest,  Count  of:  campaigns 

of,  268,  271,  273 
Manteuffel,    Edwin    Hans    Karl,    Baron 
of:    in    the    Franco- Prussian    War, 
426;  his  policy  as  governor  in  Al- 
sace-Lorraine, 436 
Mantua:  surrenders  to  the  French,  361 
Marbach,  League  of  (1405),  199 
Marbod,    chief   of   Marcomanni:    unites 
German   tribes,    15;    struggles   with 
Hermann,  21 
Marburg:  conference  at,  247 
March:  battle  of  the  (1278),  i8x 


Marcomanni :  location  of,  6 ;  at  war  with 
Romans,  15;  lead  revolt  against 
Rome,  26;  besiege  Aquileia,  26 

Marcus  Aurelius,  Emperor  of  Rome: 
wars  with  the  Germans,  26 

Marengo:  battle  of  (1800),  364 

Margaret,  daughter  of  Maximilian:  sent 
to  Paris,  218;  returns  to  Austria, 
220 

Margaret  of  Tyrol:  marries  Henry,  son 
of  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  190 

Marie  Antoinette,  Queen  of  France: 
execution  of,  356 

Maria  Louisa,  Empress  of  the  French: 
marries  Napoleon,  377,  378 

Maria  Theresa,  Holy  Roman  empress: 
birth  of,  319;  marries  Francis  of 
Lorraine,  324;  reign  of,  325,  347 

Marienburg:  capital  of  the  German  Or- 
der, 19s 

Marius,  Caius :  his  campaign  against  the 
Teutons  and  Cimbrians,  4 

Marlborough,  John  Churchill,  Duke  of: 
campaigns  of,  312 

Mars-la-Tour :  battle  of  (1870),  421 

Martin  V  (Colonna),  Pope:  elected  by 
the  Council  of  Constance,  204 

Mary  of  Burgundy:  career  of,  216, 
218 

Marx,  Karl:  influence  of,  438 

Massena,  Andre:  his  campaign  against 
the  allied  forces,  359,  362 

Matilda,  Empress  of  Germany:  marries 
Henry  V  of  Germany,  140 

Matilda,  Countess  of  Tuscany:  be^ 
friends  the  Pope,  135 ;  acknowledges 
the  emperor,  140;   death  of,  141 

Mathilde,  sister  of  Otto  HI  of  Germany: 
regent  of  Germany,  120 

Matthias,  Holy  Roman  emperor :  regent 
for  Austria,  Hungary  and  Moravia, 
266;  elected  emperor,  267 

Maurice,  Prince  of  Dessau :  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Hochkirch,  339 

Maurice,  Landgrave  of  Hesse:  com- 
pelled to  abdicate,  276 

Maurice,  Duke  of  Saxony:  takes  posses- 
sion of  Electoral  Saxony,  255;  con- 
spiracy of,  257;  death  of,  258 

Maurice  of  Saxony:  see  Saxe,  Count 
Maurice  de  (Maurice  of  Saxony) 

Max  Emanuel,  Elector  of  Bavaria :  cam- 
paigns of,  303,  313 


480 


INDEX 


Max  Joseph,  Elector  of  Bavaria:  re- 
nounces claim  to  the  throne,  330; 
death  of,  348 

Maximilian  I,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
marries  Mary  of  Burgundy,  218; 
election  of,  219;  reign  of,  225 

Maximilian  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
reign  of,  262 

Maximilian  I,  King  of  Bavaria:  his 
daughter  marries  Eugene  Beauhar- 
nais,  371 ;  joins  the  allies,  385 

Maximilian,  Duke  of  Bavaria :  perse- 
cutes the  Protestants,  265,  270;  cam- 
paigns of,  272 

Maximus:    see  Petronius  Maximus 

May  Laws,  The,  441 

Mayence :  founded,  15 ;  a  member  of  the 
Union  of  Rhenish  Cities,  174;  siege 
of  (1793),  356;  reconquered  by  the 
Prussians   (i793).  357 

Meissen:  founded,  107;  becomes  an  ap- 
panage of  Poland,  121 

Melanchthon  (Melanthon),  Philip:  in- 
fluences Frederick  of  Saxony  in  fa- 
vor of  Luther,  237;  assists  Luther 
to  translate  the  Bible,  244;  opposes 
the  union  of  state  and  church,  245; 
at  the  Marburg  Conference,  247; 
death  of,  260 

Melas,  Baron  Michael  von :  his  cam- 
paigns against  the  allied  forces,  363 

Menno,  Simon:  founds  Mennonite  sect, 
250 

Merovingian  Dynasty:   founded,  59 

Merseburg:  battle  of  (933  a.d.),  107 

Mersen,  Treaty  of  (870  a.d.),  95 

Merwig,  son  of  Chilperic:  revolt  of,  62 

Messenhauser :  death  of,  401 

Methodius,  the  Apostle  to  the  Slavs: 
his  work  among  the  Bohemians,  99 

Metternich,  Prince  Clemens  Wenzel 
Nepomuk  Lothar  von:  follows  the 
policy  of  France,  378;  becomes  the 
enemy  of  Napoleon,  383;  fears  to 
have  Napoleon  completely  over- 
thrown, 385;  proposes  the  German 
Confederation,  392;  his  influence  in 
Austria,  396;  exiled,  398 

Metz:  sieges  of  (i552-i553).  258; 
(1870),  422 

Milan:  sieges  of  (1158).  150;  (1162), 
151;  taken  by  the  French  (1796), 
360 


Miltitz,  Karl  von:  his  meeting  with  Lu- 
ther, 237 
Minden:  battle  of  (1759),  339 
Mockern:  battle  of  (1813),  382 
Mohacs:  battle  of   (1687),  303 
Mohammed  II,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  con- 
quers Constantinople,  220 
Mohammed  IV,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  at- 
tacks Vienna,  303 
Mollwitz:  battle  of  (1741),  329 
Moltke,  Count  Helmuth  Karl  Bernhard 
von:  prepares  for  war  with  France, 
417,  420;  his  campaigns  against  the 
French,  423 
Montecuccoli,    Count    Raimondo,    Duke 

of  Melfi:  campaigns  of,  301 
Montereau:   battle  of   (1814),  387 
Morat:  battle  of  (1476),  218 
Moreau,    Jean    Victor:    his    campaign 

against  the  allied  forces,  359,  364 
Morgarten:  battle  of  (1315),  187 
Moritzburg:  erection  of,  306 
Mortier,  fidouard  Adolphe  Casimir  Jo- 
seph,   Duke    of   Trevise:    his    cam- 
paign in  Hanover,  366 
Moscow :  Napoleon  in,  380 
Miihlberg:  battle  of  (1547),  255 
Miihldorf:  battle  of  (1322),  187 
Miihlhausen:  battle  of  (1525),  243 
Munich:  subject  to  Gustavus  Adolphus, 

282 
Miinster:  held  by  the  Anabaptists,  250; 

negotiations  at,  292 
Miinzer,  Thomas:  prophet  of  the  Ana- 
baptists, 243 
Murat,  Joachim :  receives  Jiilich,  Cleves, 
and  Berg,  371 ;  receives  Naples,  375 ; 
at  the  battle  of  Leipzig,  384 

N 

Nachod:  battle  of  (1866),  411 

Nafels:  battle  of  (1388),  197 

Nancy:  battle  of  (1477),  218 

Naples:  siege  of  (1191),  156 

Napoleon  (I)  Bonaparte,  Emperor  of 
the  French:  strengthens  the  French 
Republic,  359;  establishes  the  Con- 
sulate, 363;  Germany  under,  371; 
the  German  War  of  Liberation,  387 

Napoleon  III,  Emperor  of  the  French: 
his  assumption  of  power,  403 ;  in  the 
Franco- Prussian  War,  415 


INDEX 


481 


Narses:  career  of,  49 
Narva:  battle  of  (1700),  317 
National  Liberals:  description  of,  435 
Nations,  Battle  of  the  (1813),  384 
Naumburg:  taken  by  Tilly,  280 
Neerwinden:  battle  of  (1793),  357 
Nepomuck,  Saint  John  of:  see  John  of 

Nepomuck,  Saint 
Netherlands:  revolt  of  the,  263;  made  a 

kingdom,  391 
Neuss:  siege  of  (1475),  217 
New  Testament,  The:  published  in  Ger- 
man, 243 
Ney,  Michel,  Duke  of  Elchingen,  Prince 
de  la  Moskowa:  in  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  384,  389 
"  Nibelungenlied  " :  sketch  of,  178 
Nicephorus   I,   Byzantine   emperor:    ac- 
knowledges Charlemagne's    title,   85 
Nicholas  II,  Pope:  opposes  the  empire, 

131 
Nicholas  I,  Emperor  of  Russia:  assists 

Austria,  401 
Niebuhr,  Barthold  Georg:  his  efforts  to 

liberate  Germany,  375 
Nikolsburg,  Truce  of  (1866),  412 
Nobiling:  his  attempt  to  assassinate  the 

emperor,  445 
Norcia:  battle  of  (113  B.C.),  4 
Norddeutsche  Bund  (1866),  413 
Nordlingen:  battle  of  (1634),  288 
Normans:  devastate  Rome,  136 
Norsemen :  incursions  of,  87 ;  in  France, 

97;  driven  from  Germany,  99 
North      German     Confederation,     The 

(1866),  413 
Novara:  battle  of  (1849),  402 
Nuremberg:  taken  by  Bavaria,  371 
Nuremberg,  Diet  of  (1532),  249 
Nymwegen,  Peace  of  (1679),  302 


Olmutz:  siege  of  (i7S8),  338 

Orleans:  sieges  of  (451  A.D.),  41; 
(1870),  425 

Osnabruck:  negotiations  at,  292 

Ostrogoths :  rise  and  fall  of,  45 ;  see  also 
Goths 

Otto  (I)  the  Great,  Holy  Roman  em- 
peror: reign  of,  108 

Otto  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor: 
crowned,  113;  reign  of,  116 

Otto  III,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  acces- 
sion of,  118;  reign  of,  119 

Otto  IV,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  his 
struggles  for  the  throne,  158,  160; 
crowned  emperor,  159 

Otto,  Duke  of  Bavaria :  his  relations 
with  Henry  IV  of  Germany,  132 

Otto,  Duke  of  Saxony:  appointed  regent 
of  Germany,  100;  refuses  crown  of 
Germany,  104 

Otto  of  Brunswick:  reconciled  to  Fred- 
erick II  of  Germany,  164 

Otto  of  Freising,  Bishop:  sketch  of,  178 

Otto  of  Wittelsbach,  Duke  of  Bavaria: 
in  Italy,  149;  acquires  Bavaria,  153; 
murders  Philip  of  Suabia,  158; 
death  of,  159 

Otto  the  Red :  see  Otto  II,  Holy  Roman 
emperor 

Ottokar  II,  King  of  Bohemia :  revolt  of, 
180 

Oudenarde:  battle  of  (1708),  314 

Oudinot,  Nicolas  Charles,  Duke  of 
Reggio:    in    the    Napoleonic    wars, 

383 
Oxenstierna,  Count  Axel:  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  284 


Odilo,  Abbot  of  Cluny :  teaching  of,  128 
Odo,  King  of  France :  chosen  king,  98 
Odo,    Count    of    Champagne:    disputes 
succession  of  Conrad    II    in    Bur- 
gundy, 126 
Odoacer  (Odovakar)  :  career  of,  45 
Oeversee:  battle  of  (1864),  408 
Old  Age  Pensions:  inaugurated,  448 
Old  Catholics:  description  of,  440 


Paderborn:  battle  of  (783  a.d.),  82 
Palermo:  court  of  Frederick  II  at,  162 
Palikao,  Charles  Guillam^e  Marie  Apol- 

linaire    Antoine    Cousin-Montauban, 

Count   de :   in   the   Franco-Prussian 

War,  422 
Palm,  Johann  Philip :  sketch  of,  372 
Pampeluna:    captured   by   Qiarlemagne, 

81 
Pappenheim,  Gottfried   Heinrich,   Count 

of:  campaigns  of,  271,  280,  284 


482 


INDEX 


Papptia:  siege  ot  (534  A.D.).  49 

Paris:  made  capital  of  the  Prankish 
kingdom,  46;  sieges  of  (885-886 
A.D.),  97;  (978  A.D.),  116;  (1814), 
387;  (1871),  425 

Parma:  battle  of  (i49S).  227 

Paschal  II,  Pope:  his  quarrels  with 
Henry  V  of  Germany,  139,  140; 
death  of,  141 

Paschal  III,  anti-Pope:  appointed  by 
Frederick  Barbarossa,  151 

Passarowitz,  Treaty  of  (1718),  320 

Passau,  Treaty  of  (1552),  258 

Patterson,  Elizabeth:  married  to  Jerome 
Bonaparte,  374 

Paul  III,  Pope:  calls  the  Council  of 
Trent,  257 

Paul  I,  Emperor  of  Russia:  in  the  Sec- 
ond Coalition,  362 

Paul  the  Deacon:  at  court  of  Charle- 
magne, 86 

Pavia:  sieges  of  (568-572  a.d.),  51; 
(754  A.D.),  77,  79;  (1006),  121;  bat' 
tie  of  (1525),  245 

Peace  of  1648,  The:  see  Westphalia, 
Peace  of 

Peter  the  Great,  Emperor  of  Russia: 
his  relations  with  Augusta  III  of 
Poland,  307;  his  cnflicts  witft 
Charles  XII  of  Swederj  317 

Peter  III,  Emperor  of  Ri.s^ia:  his  rela- 
tions with  Frederick  the  Great,  334, 

Peter,  Archbishop  o^  Mayence:  intrigue 
of,  185 

Peter  the  Hermit:  preaches  a  crusade, 
138 

Peterwardein :  battle  of  (1716),  319 

Petrarch,  Francesco:  his  relations  with 
Charles  IV  of  Germany,  193 

Petronius  Maximus,  Emperor  of  Rome: 
accession  of,  43 

Philip  (II)  Augustus,  King  of  France: 
in  the  third  crusade,  155;  defeats 
John  of  England  and  Otto  IV  of 
Germany,  160 

Philip  (IV)  the  Fair,  King  of  France: 
his  alliance  with  Albert  I  of  Ger- 
many, 183;  influences  Lewis  of  Ba- 
varia, 190 

Philip  VI,  King  of  France:  opposes 
Lewis  of  Bavaria,  189 

Philip  (I)  the  Handsome,  King  of  Cas- 


tile: France  claims  guardianship  of. 
218;  marries  Joanna  of  Castile, 
227 

Philip  II,  King  of  Spain:  accession  of, 
259;  his  relations  with  Maximilian 
II  of  Germany,  262 

Philip  V,  King  of  Spain:  accession  of, 
3" 

Philip,  Landgrave  of  Hesse:  befriends 
Luther,  241;  arranges  for  the  con- 
ference at  Marburg,  247;  fate  of, 
256,  258 

Philip,  Duke  of  Suabia:  his  struggle  for 
the  throne,  158 

Piccolomini,  Prince  Octavio:  in  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  286 

Pippin,  King  of  Aquitaine :  crowned,  90 : 
revolt  of,  91 ;  death  of.  92 

Pippin  (I)  the  Short,  King  of  the 
Franks :  reign  of,  75 

Pippin  of  Heristal,  Mayor  of  the  Palace : 
career  of,  69;  rule  of,  69 

Pippin  of  Landen,  Mayor  of  the  Palace : 
educates  Dagobert,  65 ;  career  of,  68 

Pippin,  son  of  Charlemagfne :  crowned 
King  of  Lombardy,  81 

Pippin,  natural  son  of  Charlemagne: 
conspiracy  of,  83 

Pisa,  Council  of  (1409),  201 

Pius  II  (iEneas  Sylvius),  Pope:  his  in- 
fluence on  Frederick  III  of  Ger- 
many, 212 ;  his  estimate  of  the  Ger- 
man cities,  230 

Pius  VI,  Pope:  visits  Joseph  II  in 
Vienna,  350 

Pius  VII,  Pope:  restored,  362;  refuses 
dispensation  to   Jerome    Bonaparte, 

374 

Pius  IX,  Pope:  his  relations  with  Ger- 
many, 441 

Plantagenet,  Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall : 
becomes  King  of  Germany,  171 

Plektnide,  wife  of  Pippin  of  Heristal : 
opposes  Karl  Martel,  70 

Podiebrad,  George,  King  of  Bohemia: 
career  of,  214 

Poitiers,  Battle  of  (732  A.D.),  73 

Poland,  Kingdom  of :  founders  of,  6 ;  in- 
dependent of  Germany,  139;  parti- 
tions of  (1772).  345 ;  (1793).  3S8; 
(179s).  359 

Pollentia:  battle  of  (402  a.d.).  35 

Pompadour,  Antoinette    Poisson,    Mar- 


INDEX 


483 


quise  de:  Maria  Theresa  writes  to. 
334 
Poniatowsky,  Prince  Joseph  Antoine:  at 
the  battle  of  Leipzig,  385 

PPoppo,  Duke  of  Friesland :  opposes  Karl 
Martel,  74 
Praga:  stormed  (1794),  358 

Pragmatic  Sanction,  The  (1740),  319 

Prague:  outbreak  in  (1618),  268;  occu- 
pied by  John  George  of  Saxony 
(1632),  282;  taken  by  Wallenstein 
(1632),  283;  battle  of  (1639),  291; 
taken  by  Frederick  the  Great 
(1744).  330;  siege  and  battle  of 
(1757),  335 

Prague,  Treaties  of  (1635),  288;  (1866), 
412 

Prague,  University  of:  founded,  192 

Presburg,  Treaties  of:  (1491),  219; 
C180S),  367 

Printing,  The  invention  of,  220 

Probus,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Emperor  of 
Rome :  policy  of,  29 

Procopius,  Andrew  the  Great:  succeeds 
Ziska,  209;  death  of,  211 

Procopius  the  Little:  leads  the  Orphans, 
209;  death  of,  211 

Progressives:  description  of,  434 

Protestants :  origin  of,  246 

Protestant  Union,  The:  formed,  265 

Prussia:  basis  of,  145;  rise  of,  317;  in 
the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession, 
334 

Pufendorf,  Samuel  von:  his  estimate  of 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  297 

Pultowa  (Poltava) :  battle  of  (1709), 
317 

Pytheas:  finds  the  Germans  on  the  Bal- 
tic Sea,  3 


Q.  R 

Quadi:  location  of,  6;  besiege  Aquileia, 

26 
Quadruple      Alliance,      The:       formed 

(1718),  320 
Quatre-Bras:  battle  of  (1815),  389 
Quedlinburg:  founded,  ic6 
Raby:  siege  of  (1420),  208 
Radagast    (Radagaisus    or    Radagais) : 

unites  German    tribes    and    invades 

Italy,  38 


Radbod,  Duke  of  Friesland:  his  cam- 
paig^n  against  Karl  Martel,  70 

Radetzky,  Joseph  Wenzel,  Count:  in 
Italy,  402 

Radulf,  Duke  of  Thuringia:  defeats  the 
Franks,  66 

Raginfried,  Mayor  of  the  Palace:  his 
campaign  against  Karl  Martel,  70 

Ramillies:  battle  of  (1706),  314 

Rastatt,  Congress  of  (1798),  362 

Rastatt,  Treaty  of  (1714),  316 

Rastitz,  King  of  the  Moravian  Slavo- 
nians: conspiracy  of,  96 

Ratisbon :  taken  by  Bernard  of  Saxe- 
Weimar,  286 

Ratisbon,  Diets  of:  (1630),  277;  (1640), 
291 

Reformation,  The,  233 

Reformed  Church:  see  Calvinists 

Religious  Peace,  Treaties  of:  (1532), 
249,  251;   (1555),  259 

Remigius,  Saint,  Archbishop  of  Rheims: 
baptizes  Clovis,  59 

Rene,  Duke  of  Lorraine:  recovers  his 
land,  218 

Restitution,  Edict  of:  issued  (1629), 
276;  withdrawn,  294 

Revolution,  The  French,  354 

Revolution  of  1830,  The,  395 

Revolution  of  1848,  The,  398 

Rheims:  convention  of  chiefs  held  at,  24 

Rheinbund:  see  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine 

Rhenish  Cities,  Union  of,  175 

Richard  (I)  the  Lion-Heart,  King  of 
England:  in  the  third  crusade,  155; 
prisoner  of  Leopold  of  Austria,  156 

Richard  of  Cornwall :  see  Plantagenet, 
Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall 

Richelieu,  Armand  Jean  du  Plessis, 
Cardinal  and  Duke  of:  opposes 
Ferdinand  H  of  Germany,  278,  285, 
288;  treats  with  Maximilian  of  Ba- 
varia, 281 

Ricimer,  Chief  of  the  Suevi:  career  of, 

43 

Rienzi  (Rienzo),  Cola  di:  his  relations 
with  Charles  IV  of  Germany,  193 

Robert  the  Wise,  King  of  Naples :  strug- 
gles of,  186 

Robert  (Roger)  II,  King  of  Naples  and 
Sicily:   supports  the  anti-Pope,    143 

Robert  Guiscard,  Chief  of  the  Normans : 


484 


INDEX 


aids  Gregory  VII  against  Henry  IV 
of  Germany,  136 
Roderick,  King  of  the  Visigoths:  death 

of,  50 
Roland,  Count  of  Brittany:  death  of,  81 
Rome:  wars  with  the  Germans,  10;  de- 
cline  of   power,   26;    siege   of    (ca. 
408  A.D.),  36;  sacked  by  Goths  (410 
A.D.),  36;   sacked  by  Vandals   (455 
A.D.),  43;  Popes  assume  government 
of,  51;    sieges   of    (962   a.d.),    114; 
(1084),  136;  (1527).  246 
Rome,  Republic  of:  overthrown,  362 
Romulus      Augtistulus,      Emperor      of 

Rome:  retirement  of,  45 
Roncesvalles :  battle  of  (778  A.D.),  81 
Roon,   Count   Albrecht    Theodor    Emil 
von:  in  the  Franco- Prussian  War, 

417 

Rossbach:  battle  of  (i7S7),  336 

Riidiger,  General :  Gorgey  surrenders  to, 
401 

Rudolf  (I)  of  Hapsburg,  Holy  Roman 
emperor:  reign  of,  179 

Rudolf  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  edu- 
cated in  Spain,  262;  reign  of,  263 

Rudolf  I,  King  of  Burgundy:  his  war 
with  Arnulf,  99 

Rudolf  III,  King  of  Burgundy:  makes 
Henry  II  his  heir,  122;  his  relations 
with  Conrad  II  of  Germany,  125 

Rudolf,  Duke  of  Suabia:  supplants 
Henry  IV  of  Germany,  136 

Rudolf,  son  of  Albert  I  of  Germany: 
death  of,  184 

Rudolf,  son  of  Rudolf  (I)  of  Hapsburg: 
receives  Austria,  181 ;  death  of,  182 

Rufinus :  guardian  of  Arcadius,  35 ;  mur- 
der of,  35 

Rupert,  King  of  Germany:  defeats  the 
Suabian  cities,  197;  election  of,  198; 
death  of,  200 

Ryswick,  Treaty  of  (1697),  306 


Saarbruck:  battle  of   (1870),  421 

St.   Bartholomew,  Massacre  of   (1572), 

262 
St.  Jacob:  battle  of  (1444),  213 
Sl  John,  Knights  of,  173 
Saladin,   Sultan   of   Eg^t  and   Syria: 

takes  Jerusalem,  155 


Samo :  unites  Slavonic  tribes,  65 

Sand,  Karl  Ludwig:  assassinates  Kotze- 
bue,  394 

Sangipan,  King  of  the  Alans:  forms 
alliance  with  Aetius,  41 

Saracens :  invade  Europe,  73 

Saragossa :  captured  by  Charlemagne,  81 

Sardinia,  Kingdom  of:  founded,  316 

Saxe,  Count  Maurice  de  (Maurice  of 
Saxony)  :  in  the  War  of  the  Aus- 
trian Succession,  331 

Saxo  Grammaticus,  178 

Saxons:  location  of,  6;  g^rowth  of,  28; 
their  wars  with  Charlemagne,  79; 
accept  Christianity,  81 ;  their  rela- 
tions with  Henry  IV  of  Germany, 
132;  defeated  by  Henry  V  of  Ger- 
many, 140 

Saxony:  division  of,  255  note 

Schaflfhausen :  annexed  to  Switzerland, 
214 

Schamhorst,  Gerhard  Johann  David 
von :  his  efforts  to  liberate  Germany, 
375.  379;  death  of,  382 

Schertlin,  Sebastian:  campaigns  of,  250, 

254 
Schill,  Ferdinand  von:  defends  Colberg, 

372;  revolt  of,  376 
Schiller,    Johann    Christoph    Friedrich 

von :  at  Weimar,  353,  381 
Schleswig :  added  to  the  empire,  107 ;  re- 
stored to  Denmark,  125;  revolt  of, 
399,  404;  separated  from  Holstein, 
408 
Schmalkalden,   The  League  of:   sketch 

of,  249 
Schmalkalden  League,  War  of,  254 
Schoeffer,  Peter:  partner  of  Fust,  221 
Schonbrunn :  Napoleon  at,  367,  377 
Schwartzenberg,   Felix   Ludwig  Johann 
Friedrich,  Prince  von:  ministry  of, 

403 

Schwarzenberg,  Karl  Philipp,  Prince 
von:  campaigns  of,  383,  384,  387 

Schweidnitz:  taken  by  the  Prussians 
(1578),  338;  taken  by  Landon, 
(1761),  342;  siege  of  (1762),  343 

Schwerin,  Count  Kurt  Christoph:  cam- 
paigns of,  329,  335 

Schwyz :  secures  independence,  184 

Sedan:  battle  of  (1870),  423 

Segestes:  his  feud  with  Hermann,  19; 
death  of,  21 


INDEX 


485 


Seidlitz  (Scydlitz),  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
von:  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  336, 
338 

Sempach:  battle  of  (1386),  197 

Sequani:  form  alliance  with  Arvemi,  10 

Seven  Weeks'  War,  The,  410,  412 

Seven  Months'  War,  The:  see  Franco- 
Prussian  War 

Seven  Years'  War,  The,  335 

Sforza,  Blanca  Maria:  marries  Maximil- 
ian I  of  Germany,  226 

Sibylla,  wife  of  John  Frederick:  de- 
fends Wittenberg,  256 

Sicambrians:  location  of,  6;  relations  of, 
to  Franks,  28 

Sicilian  Vespers,  The  (1282),  170 

Sickingen,  Franz  von :  power  of,  228 ; 
befriends  Luther,  239 

Sigbert,  Frankish  king:  reign  of,  61 

Sigismund,  Holy  Roman  emperor :  re- 
ceives Brandenburg,  194;  appointed 
vicar  of  the  empire,  198;  imprisons 
Wenzel,  199;  reign  of,  201 

Sigismund  III,  King  of  Poland:  aids 
Ferdinand  II  of  Germany,  270 

Sigismund  of  Tyrol,  Duke  of  Austria: 
his  relations  with  Charles  the  Bold 
of  Burgundy,  216;  death  of,  227 

Silesian  Wars,  The:  first,  330;  second, 

331 
Skalitz:  battle  of  (1866),  411 
Small  Germans:  sketch  of,  399,  402 
Smith,  Adam :  publishes  his  "  Wealth  of 

Nations,"  345 
Smolensk:  battle  of  (1812),  380 
Social  Democrats   (Socialists)  :  descrip- 
tion of,  437 
Social  Democrat:  issued  in  Switzerland, 

446 
Soissons:  battle  of  (486  A.D.).  46 
Solferino:  battle  of  (1859),  405 
Soltikov,   Count    Peter:   in    the    Seven 

Years'  War,  340 
Soor:  battle  of  (1745),  331 
Sophia,  wife  of  Wenzel :  favors  the  Hus- 
sites, 202,  205 
Sophia   Dorothea   of   Hanover:   mother 

of  Frederick  the  Great,  326 
Soubise,  Charles  de  Rohan,  Prince  of: 

in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  336,  342 
Spandau :   occupied  by   Gustavus   Adol- 
phus     (1632),    279;     surrender    of 
(1806),  372 


Spener,  Philipp  Jakob:  account  of,  308 
Speyer:    a    member    of    the    Union    of 
Rhenish   Cities,    174;   taken   by   the 
French  (1792),  356 
Speyer,  Diet  of  (1529),  246 
Spicheren:  battle  of  (1870),  421 
Stadion,  Count  Johann  Philipp  Karl  Jo- 
seph von :  ministry  of,  375,  378 
Stadtlohn:  battle  of  (1623),  273 
Stahremberg,    Count    Ernest    Rudiger: 

defends  Vienna,  303 
Stanislas    (I)    Lesczinsky,  King  of  Po- 
land: career  of,  317,  323 
Stanislas     (II)     Augustus     (Poniatow- 
sky),  King  of  Poland:  accession  of, 

345 
Stedinger:  extermination  of,  162 
Stein,   Heinrich   Friedrich   Karl,   Baron 

von:    forms    alliance    with    Russia, 

373 ;  reforms  of,  374,  381 
Stephen    II,    Pope:    his    relations    with 

Pippin  the  Short,  76 
Stephen    IV,    Pope:    visits    Lewis    the 

Pious,  90 
Stephen  I,  Saint,  King  of  Hungary:  his 

war  with  Albert  of  Austria,  126 
Stettin:  occupied  by  Gustavus  Adolphus, 

279;  taken  by  the  Great  Elector,  301 
Stilicho:  career  of,  35 
Stockholm,     Treaties     of:     (1719     and 

1720),  318 
Stralsund:      seiges     of      (1628),     276; 

(1809),  376 
Strasburg   (Strassburg)  :     founded,   15 ; 

battle  of   (496  A.D.),  47;  a  member 

of  the  Union  of  Rhenish  Cities,  174; 

embraces     the     Reformation,     243; 

submits  to  the  emperor,  255;  taken 

by  the  French  (1681),  302;  siege  of 

(1870),  424 
Struve,  Gustav  von :  leads  insurrection, 

399 
Styria:   bestowed  on  Albert  I  of  Gen- 
many,  181 
Suabian  League:  sketch  of,  219 
Succession   of   Cleves:    dispute   of   the, 

266 
Succession,  War  of  the  Austrian,  331 
Succession,  War  of  the  Polish,  319 
Succession,  War  of  the  Spanish,  311 
Suevi :  aid  the  Sequani,  10 ;  defeated  by 

Caesar,  12 ;  see  also  Hermunduri  and 

also  Chatti 


486 


INDEX 


Suleiman    the    Magnificent.    Sultan    of 

Turkey:  in  Germany,  249 
Suvarov   (SuvaroflF),  Count  Alexander! 

campaigns  of,  358,  362 
Swatopluk :  see  Zwentebold 
Swen,  King  of  Denmark :  his  relations 

with  Henry  IV  of  Germany,  132 
Switzerland,  Republic  of:  founded,  184 
Sword,  Brothers  of  the,  173 
Syagrius :  in  Gaul,  46 
Sylvester     II     (Gerbert     of     Rheims), 

Pope:  account  of,  119 
S)rracuse:  captured  by  Franks,  30 


Tabor:  battle  of  (1645),  291 

Taborites,  The,  207 

Tagliacozzo :  battle  of  ( 1268) ,  170 

Talleyrand- Per  igord,  Charles  Maurice 
de,  Prince  of  Benevento:  negotia- 
tions of,  364;  at  the  Congfress  of 
Berlin,  389,  39i 

Tancred,  King  of  Sicily:  defeats  Henry 
VI  of  Germany,  156 

Tannenbcrg:  battle  of  (1410),  199 

Tariff  Union,  The  (1836),  395 

Tassilo,  Duke  of  Bavaria:  espouses  the 
cause  of  Grifo,  75;  opposes  Charle- 
magne, 83 

Teias,  King  of  the  Ostrogoths :  reign  of, 

50 
Templars,  Knights,  173 
Tencteres:  defeated  by  Caesar,  12 
Testri:  battle  of  (687  a.d.),  69 
Tetzel    (Tezel,    Diez,    Deze),    Johann: 

sketch  of,  236 
Teutoboch,     Prince     of    the     Teutons: 

taken  prisoner  by  the  Romans,  5 
Teutoburger  Forest:  battles  of  (9  a.d.), 

18;  (is  a.d.),  20;  (782  A.D.),  82 
Teutonic   (German)   Order  of  Knights, 

173.  195.  199,  215 
Teutons:  invade  Roman  territory,  4 
Thankmar;  conspiracy  of,  109 
Thauss:  battle  of  (1431).  210 
Theodolind,  Queen  of  the  Longobards: 

persuades    her    people    to    become 

Christians,  53 
Theodoric  the  Great.  King  of  the  Ostro- 
goths: career  of,  45 


Theodoric,  King  of  the  Visigoths :  forms 

alliance  with  Aetius,  41 ;   death   of, 

42 
Theodosius   (I)   the  Great,  Emperor  of 

the  East:  makes  treaty  with  Goths, 

34;  death  of,  35 
Theophania,  Byzantine  princess:  sketch 

of,  114;  regent  for  Otto  III,  118 
Theudebert,    King  of   Austrasia:    death 

of,  64 
Theuderic   I,  Prankish  king:   reign  of, 

60 
Theuderic  II,  Prankish    king:    assisted 

by  Clotar  II,  64 
Theuderic  III,  Prankish  king:  captured 

by  Pippin  of  Heristal,  69 
Theudowald,  Mayor  of  the  Palace:  ca- 
reer of,  70 
Thirty  Years'  War,  The,  265 
Thorismond,    King    of    the    Visigoths: 

proclaimed  king,  42 
Thorn,  Peace  of  (1466),  216 
Three  Emperors,  Battle  of  the   (1805), 

367 
Thuringia :  divided  between  the  Franks 

and  the  Saxons,  60;  status  of,  66; 

peasant  war  in,  243 
Thurn,   Count   Heinrich    Matthias   von: 

leads    revolution    in    Bohemia,    268; 

defeated  by  Wallenstein,  286 
Thusnelda :  nlarries  Hermann,  17 ;  taken 

captive  by  Romans,  20 
Tiberius,  Emperor  of  Rome:  his  cam- 

paigfn  against  Germans,  15;  recalls 

Germanicus,  21 
Tilly,  Johann,  Count  of:  career  of,  272, 

282 
Tilsit,  Peace  of  (1807),  374 
Torgau:  battle  of  (1760),  341 
Torgau,  Alliance  of  (1526),  245 
Tortona:  siege  of  (nss)),  148;  destruc- 
tion of  (1163),  151 
Torstenson,  Lennart:  campaigns  of,  291 
Tobila,  King  of  the  Ostrogoths:  reign 

of,  49 
Toul:  siege  of  (1870),  424 
Toulon:  taken    (l793).  357 
Toulouse:  plundered  by  Clovis,  47 
Trautenau:  battles  of  (1866),  411 
Trent,   Council   of   (1545-1563) :   called, 

251 ;  adjourns,  260 
Treviri:  defeated  by  Cercalif,  24 
Triple  Alliance,  The  (1878),  442 


INDEX 


487 


Trochu,    Louis  Jule:    in    the    Franco- 
Prussian  War,  421 
Truce  of  God:  published,  128 
Tugendbung:  see  Victory,  League  of 
Turenne,     Henri    de    La    Tour    d'Au- 
vergne,  Viscount  of:  campaigns  of, 
292,  300 
Turpin,  Bishop:    at    Court    of    Charle- 
magne, 86 
Tyrolese:  revolt  of,  375,  377 


U,V 

Ubii:  location  of,  6;  submit  to  Qesar, 

13 

Ulfilas  (Wulfila),  Bishop:  career  of,  32 

Ulm:   submits   to  the   emperor    (1547), 

255;   seized  by  the  French   (1702), 

312;   taken  by  the  French    (1805), 

367 

Ulric,  Count  of  Wiirtemberg:  revolt  of, 
180 

Ulric,  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg :  oppressions 
of,  229;  reinstated,  250;  submits  to 
the  emperor,  255 

Union  of  Rhenish  Cities,  175 

Unterwalden:  secures  independence,  184 

Upper  Burgundy,  Kingdom  of:  estab- 
lishment of,  98 

Urban  II,  Pope:  appointed  by  the  Nor- 
mans and  the  French,  136 

Urban  III,  Pope:  opposes  Frederick 
Barbarossa,  155 

Urban  IV,  Pope :  pontificate  of,  169 

Urban  V,  Pope:  his  relations  with 
Charles  IV  of  Germany,  194 

Uri :  secures  independence,  184 

Usipetes:  defeated  by  Caesar,  12 

Utrecht:  taken  by  the  French,  300 

Utrecht,  Peace  of  (1713),  315 

Valens,  Roman  and  Byzantine  emperor: 
assists  the  Goths,  33;  death  of,  34 

Valentinian  II,  Emperor  of  the  West: 
reign  of,  34 

Valmy:  battle  of   (1792),  356 

Vandals :  location  of,  6 ;  sketch  of,  31 ; 
settle  in  northern  Africa,  39;  sack 
Rome,  43;  destruction  of,  49 

Vandamme,  Dominique  Josephe:  in  the 
Napoleonic  wars,  383 

Varus,  Publius  Quinctillius :  policy  of, 
16;  defeat  of,  18 


Vehm,  The  Holy,  :230 

Velleda  (Veleda)  :  prophesies  victory  of 
Germans,  23 

Venice:  founded,  42;  struggles  of,  227; 
republic  overthrown,  360;  siege  of 
(1849),  402 

Vercelli:  battle  of  (loi  b.c.),  5 

Vercingetorix :  taken  prisoner  by  Ro- 
mans, 12 

Verden:  massacre  at,  82 

Verdun:  siege  of  (1792),  356 

Verdun,  Partition  of  (843  a.d.)i  93 

Vespasian,  Emperor  of  Rome:  condition 
of  Germany  under,  23 

Victor  II,  Pope:  appointed  by  Henry 
III  of  Germany,  130 

Victor  IV,  anti-Pope:  recognized  by 
Frederick  Barbarossa,  151 

Victor  Amadeus  I,  King  of  Sardinia 
(II,  Duke  of  Savoy)  :  forms  an  alli- 
ance with  Germany,  312 

Victor  Emmanuel  I,  King  of  Italy  (II 
of  Sardinia)  :  accession  of,  to  throne 
of  Sardinia,  402;  unites  all  Italy, 
405 

Vienna:  made  a  free  city,  164;  sieges  of 
(1276),  180;  (1490),  219;  (1529- 
1532),  250;  (1619),  269;  (1683), 
303;  (180s),  367;  (1809),  yjT, 
(1848),  401;  rising  in  (1848),  398; 
taken  by  the  Prussians   (1866),  412 

Vienna,  Concordat  of  (1448),  213 

Vienna,  Congress  of  (1814),  388 

Vienna,  Treaties  of  (l735),  324;  (1809), 
377 

Villars,  Louis  Hector,  Duke  of:  cam- 
paigns of,  313,  323 

Vilna:  see  Wilna 

Vinea,  Peter  de:  treachery  of,  166 

Virtue,  League  of:  description  of,  376, 
379 

Visconti,  Galleazzo  I,  Lord  of  Milan: 
assisted  by  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  187 

Visigoths :  their  relations  with  Clovis, 
47;  see  also  Goths 

Vitiges,  King  of  the  Ostrogoths:  reign 
of,  49 

Vitimer,  King  of  the  Ostrogoths:  de- 
feated by  Huns,  33 

Voltaire  (Francois  Marie  Arouet)  :  hi» 
estimate  of  the  Holy  Roman  Em- 
pire, 297;  his  relations  with  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  328,  345 


488 


INDEX 


W 


Wagram:  battle  of  (1809),  377 

Waiblinger:  see  Ghibbeline 

Waldemar  (II)  the  Victorious,  King  of 
Denmark:  taken  prisoner  by  Henry 
of  Schwerin,  162 

Waldemar  III,  King  of  Denmark:  de- 
feated by  Hanseatic  League,  195 

Waldemar,  The  False:  pretensions  of, 
192 

Wallenstein  (Waldstein),  Albert  Euse- 
bius  von,  Duke  of  Friedland,  Meck- 
lenburg: career  of,  274,  278,  282; 
death  of,  287 

Wallia,  King  of  the  Visigoths:  his  cam- 
paign against  the  Vandals,  39 

Walter  von  der  Vogelweide:  sketch  of, 

178 
Warsaw:  battle  of  (1656),  300;  siege  of 

(1794).  358 
Warsaw,  Grand  Duchy  of:  formed,  374 
Waterloo:  battle  of  (1815),  390 
Wedel,   Karl   Heinrich:   in    tiie    Seven 

Years'  War,  339 
Weinsberg:  siege  of  (1140),  144 
Weissenburg:  battle  of  (1870),  421 
Welf  II,  Duke  of  Bavaria:  his  relations 

with  Henry  V  of  Germany,  141 
Welf  VI,  Duice  of   Bavaria:   wars  of, 

144.  145 
Welf:  see  Guelph 
Wellington,  Arthur  Wellesley,  Viscount : 

his  campaigns  against  the   French, 

375,  389 
Wends:  disloyal  to  the  empire,  139 
Wenzel,   King   of   Germany:     crowned 
King  of   Bohemia,    194;    reign    of, 
196;  imprisoned  by  Sigismund,  199; 
death  of,  206 
Wenzel  II,  King  of  Bohemia:  marries 
daughter  of  Rudolf    of    Hapsburg, 
181 ;  supports  Albert  I  of  Germany, 

183 

Werder,  Count  August  Karl  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  Leopold  von:  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  425 

Werner,  Count  of  Kyburg:  sketch  of, 
126 

Westphalia:  early  inhabitants  of,  6;  in- 
vaded by  Caesar,  13;  peasant  war  in, 
243 

Westphalia,  Peace  of  (1648),  293 


White  Mountain:  battle  of  the  (1620), 
270 

Wickliffe,  John:  his  influence  in  Ger- 
many, 202 

Wieland,  Christopher  Martin:  at 
Weimar,  353 

Wilhelmine,  Margravine  of  Bayreuth: 
marriage  of,  327 

William  of  Holland,  King  of  Germany 
(nominal) :  his  struggles  for  the 
throne,  167,  168 

William,  Landgrave  of  Hesse-Cassel : 
unites  with  Gustavus  Adolphus,  280; 
defeats  the  imperialists,  285 

William  I,  Emperor  of  Germany:  re- 
gency of,  404;  reign  of,  405 

William  II,  Emperor  of  Germany:  ac- 
cession of,  437;  reign  of,  449 

Willigis,  Archbishop  of  Mayence:  aids 
Theophania,  118 

Wilna:  battle  of  (1389),  199 

Wimpfen:  battle  of  (1622),  272 

Wimpffen,  Emanuel  Felix  de:  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  423 

Windischgratz,  Alfred  Candidus  Fer- 
dinand, Pnnce  of:  campaigns  of, 
401 

Windthorst,  Ludwig:  leads  the  Clericals, 
439 

Winfield:  battle  of  (9  A.D.),  I9 

Winifred :  see  Boniface 

Winkelried,  Arnold  of:  at  the  battle  of 
Senepach,  197 

Witold,  Prince  of  Lithuania:  seeks  alli- 
ance with  the  Hussites,  208 

Wittekind,  Chief  of  the  Saxons:  his 
campaigns  against  Charlemagne,  80 

Wittenberg:  defended  by  Sibylla,  256 

Wittenberg,  University  of:  founded,  234 

Wolfgang  William,  Count  Palatine  of 
Neuburg:  in  the  Succession  of 
Cleves  dispute,  266 

Wolfram  of  Eschenbach :  sketch  of,  178 

Wolgast:  taken  by  the  Danes,  276 

Worms :  a  member  of  the  Union  of 
Rhenish  Cities,  174;  battle  of 
(1388),  197;  taken  by  the  French 
(1792),  356 

Worms,  Concordat  of  (1122),  141 

Worms,  Diets  of:  (1495),  226;  (1521), 
240 

Worms,  Edict  of  (1521),  241 

Worth:  battle  of  (1870),  421 


INDEX 


489 


Wrangel,  Count  Karl  Gustaf:  in  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  292 

Wrede,  Prince  Karl  PhiHpp :  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Hanau,  385 

Wulfila :  see  Ulfilas 

Wiirtemberg:  peasant  war  in,  243;  be- 
comes a  member  of  the  League,  250 

Wurzburg:  taken  by  Tilly  (1631),  281 

X,  Y,  Z 

York,  Frederick  Augustus,  Duke  of:  his 
campaign  in  the  Netherlands,  363; 
commands  the  Prussian  contingent. 
381 

Zacharias,  Pope:  his  relations  with  Pip- 
pin the  Short,  76 


Zeno,  Emperor  of  the  West:  appoints 

Theodoric  governor  of  Italy,  45 
Zenta:  battle  of  (1697),  304 
Zieten,   Hans  Joachim   von:   campaigns 

of,  335,  337,  341 
Ziska,  John:  sketch  of,  206 
Zollverein:  see  Tariff  Union,  The 
Zorndorf:  battle  of  (1758),  338 
Zug:  a  member  of  the  Swiss  republic, 

196 
Zurich :  a  member  of  the  Swiss  republic, 

196;  battle  of  (1799),  362 
Zwentebold,  King  of  Bohemia:  his  war 

with   Ludwig  the  German,  96;   his 

war  with  Arnulf,  97 
Zwingli,  Ulrich  or  Hudreich:  sketch  of, 

246 


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